-S*' 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/artificialflowerOOvankrich 


RUSSELL   SAGE 
FOUNDATION 


ARTIFICIAL  FLOWER 
MAKERS 


BY 

MARY  VAN    KLEECK 

ti 

SECRETARY   COMMITTEE    ON    WOMEN'S   WORK 
RUSSELL    SAGE    FOUNDATION 


NEW    YORK 

SURVEY    ASSOCIATES,    INC, 

MCMXIII 


H*«#? 


COMMITTEE  ON  WOMEN'S  WORK  OF  THE 
RUSSELL  SAGE  FOUNDATION 

Henry  R.  Seager,  Chairman 
Miss  Lilian  Brandt 
Samuel  McCune  Lindsay 
Mrs.  Henry  R.  Seager 
Antonio  Stella,  M.D. 
Miss  Ellen  J.  Stone 
Lawrence  Veiller 
Mrs.  Lawrence  Veiller 


Copyright,  191 3,  by 
The  Russell  Sage  Foundation 


D    TROW     PRESS 
NBW    TORS 


PREFACE 

THIS  book  describes  the  results  of  an  investi- 
gation made  by  the  Committee  on  Wom- 
en's Work  of  the  Russell  Sage  Founda- 
tion, and  is  the  second  in  a  series  of  studies  of  the 
condition  of  women's  work  in  important  trades  in 
New  York  City.  While  the  inquiry  was  local  in 
scope,  the  facts  discovered  are  national  in  their 
significance.  New  York  produces  three-fourths  of 
all  the  artificial  flowers  made  in  the  United  States. 
The  development  of  the  industry  in  any  other 
section  of  the  country  will  depend  on  the  labor 
standards  maintained  in  the  city  where  it  is  now 
so  largely  concentrated.  Furthermore,  the  trade 
is  a  concrete  illustration  of  large  industrial  prob- 
lems— seasonal  work,  child  labor,  lack  of  skill, 
the  home-work  system — which  are  common  to 
many  occupations  in  many  communities.  Inten- 
sive studies  of  the  conditions  in  one  trade  in  one 
city  will  throw  light  on  conditions  in  other  trades 
in  other  cities.  Efforts  to  solve  the  problem  in 
one  locality  will  stimulate  action  in  other  sections 
of  the  country. 

The  series  of  studies  of  which  this  investigation 
of  artificial  flower  makers  is  a  part  is  based  on 
first-hand  information  secured  from  employers  and 
workers.     Attention  was  focused  purposely  not  on 


271401 


PREFACE 

trade  prosperity,  value  of  product,  or  profits  to 
investors,  but  on  the  wellbeing  of  the  girls  em- 
ployed, in  so  far  as  it  could  be  measured  in  wages, 
hours  of  labor,  regularity  of  employment,  oppor- 
tunity to  acquire  skill,  chance  to  advance,  and 
the  conditions  of  living  made  possible  by  the  earn- 
ings received.  The  scope  of  the  investigation  is 
shown  in  detail  in  the  four  record  cards  reproduced 
in  the  Appendix.*  The  first  contains  facts  about 
the  worker's  industrial  history  and  living  condi- 
tions, such  as  her  relationship  to  the  head  of  the 
household  in  which  she  lives,  her  age  and  birth- 
place, and  a  chronological  record  of  positions  held, 
with  the  name  and  address  of  each  firm,  the  kind 
of  work  done  by  her,  weekly  wages,  means  of 
securing  the  position,  reason  for  leaving,  and  loss 
of  time  through  unemployment.  The  facts  about 
living  conditions  include  nationality  of  father  and 
mother,  number  of  children  at  home,  other  wage- 
earners  in  the  family,  the  number  of  rooms  in 
which  they  live,  rent,  and  the  proportion  of  her 
earnings  which  the  girl  contributes  to  her  home. 

The  second  card  contains  facts  secured  from 
a  worker  about  the  factory  in  which  she  was 
working.  Often  reports  were  obtained  from  sev- 
eral girls  employed  in  the  same  factory.  The  third 
card  shows  the  record  of  the  investigation  of  a 
factory.  It  is  filed  with  the  cards  containing  re- 
ports from  the  girls,  thus  bringing  together  for  com- 
parison all  the  information  secured  from  workers 

*  See  pages  228-235. 
vi 


PREFACE 

and  employer  concerning  each  place  of  employ- 
ment covered  in  the  inquiry.  Both  the  second 
and  third  cards  include  data  regarding  the  proc- 
esses of  work  carried  on  by  women,  wages,  oppor- 
tunities for  learners,  seasons,  hours  of  labor,  over- 
time, home  work,  and  sanitary  conditions  in  the 
workroom. 

The  fourth  record  used  in  the  investigation  pro- 
vided information  about  home  workers — their 
work,  earnings,  and  living  conditions,  and  the 
employment  and  wages  of  members  of  the  family 
at  work  in  other  occupations.  When  a  flower 
maker  employed  in  a  factory  was  a  member  of  a 
family  of  home  workers  all  four  cards  were  used. 

Names  of  workers  were  secured  from  social 
settlements  and  other  philanthropic  organizations, 
public  evening  schools,  and  fellow  workers  or 
friends  of  the  girls.*     In  the  investigation  of  home 

*  Sources  of  Names  of  Flower  Makers  in  the  Shops: 

Richmond  Hill  House 68 

Other  settlements,  girls'  clubs,  etc.  (College  Settlement, 
Greenwich  House,  Henry  Street  Settlement,  Downtown 
Ethical  Society,  Council  of  Jewish  Women,  Girls'  Friendly 

Society,  Educational  Alliance) 45 

Other  organizations  (Alliance  Employment  Bureau,  Child 
Welfare  Exhibit,  Protestant  Episcopal  Mission  Church, 
Consumers'  League,  International  Institute  of  the  Young 

Women's  Christian  Association) 11 

Evening  schools 51 

Other  schools  (Manhattan  Trade  School  for  Girls,  public 

school  teacher) 7 

Through  other  shop  and  home  workers  visited      ...     45 
Found  by  visitors 17 

244 
Of  these  244  names  of  workers,  records  were  secured  from   174, 
while  the  remaining  70  were  no  longer  flower  makers,  could  furnish 
only  inadequate  information,  or  could  not  be  found. 

vii 


PREFACE 

workers,*  a  group  of  families  were  interviewed 
who  had  been  visited  in  1907  in  an  investiga- 
tion of  child  labor  in  tenements  in  New  York.f 
Comparison  of  the  records  secured  in  these  two 
investigations  gave  added  value  to  the  more 
recent  data.  More  than  980  visits  were  made 
during  the  course  of  the  present  investigation,  591 
to  workers  in  their  homes,  and  391  to  factories  to 
interview  employers.  It  is  the  practice  of  our 
investigators  to  have  at  least  two  interviews  in 
the  home  of  a  worker;  first,  in  the  daytime  with 
her  mother  or  some  other  member  of  the  house- 
hold, and  second,  in  the  evening  with  the  worker 
after  she  gets  home  from  the  factory.  Records 
were  secured  of  174  shop  workers,  114  artificial 
flower  factories,  and  1 10  families  of  home  workers.J 

*  Sources  of  names  of  Home  Workers  on  Artificial  Flowers: 
Records  of  investigation  of  Child  Labor  in  New  York  City 

Tenements,  1907,  revisited  in  1910 54 

Richmond  Hill  House,  a  social  settlement  in  the  Italian 

district 14 

Other  organizations  (Consumers'  League,  Charity  Organi- 
zation Society) 6 

Evening  schools 1 

Shop  workers  whose  families  made  flowers  at  home      .        .     20 
Found  by  visitors 55 

150 
From  this  list  of  150  names,  records  were  secured  from  1 10  home 
workers,  while  the  other  40  families  were  no  longer  making  flowers 
at  home,  or  could  not  be  found. 

t  This  study  had  been  made  under  the  auspices  of  the  College 
Settlements  Association  in  cooperation  with  the  Child  Labor  Com- 
mittee, local  and  national,  and  the  Consumers'  League,  local  and 
national.  For  results  of  the  study  see  Van  Kleeck,  Mary:  Child 
Labor  in  New  York  City  Tenements,  Charities  and  the  Commons, 
XIX:  1 405- 1 420  (January  18,  1908). 

%  In  addition,  records  were  secured  of  12  workers  employed  in 
fancy  feather  shops,  four  in  ostrich  feather  factories,  and  three  home 
workers  in  the  ostrich  feather  trade. 

viii 


PREFACE 

All  the  shops  which  we  could  find  in  Manhattan 
were  visited,  including  both  independent  factories 
and  departments  of  establishments  that  combined 
more  than  one  branch  of  the  millinery  industry. 
These  shops  employed  5,240  workers,  and  the 
interviews  with  employers,  forewomen,  and  others 
afforded  a  thorough  basis  of  information  for  the 
intensive  case  study  of  girls  employed  in  the 
trade. 

The  determination  of  the  number  of  cases  which 
should  be  investigated  in  order  to  make  the  study 
thorough  is  a  matter  of  judgment,  and  depends 
largely  upon  the  character  of  the  occupation.  A 
representative  group  illustrative  of  every  impor- 
tant phase  of  labor  conditions  in  the  trade  must 
be  studied.  In  a  complex  industry,  in  which 
changes  are  rapid  and  methods  differ  radically  in 
different  factories,  the  number  of  case  studies  nec- 
essary to  insure  representative  data  will  be  larger 
than  in  an  occupation  in  which  machinery  is  not 
used,  and  where  processes  are  more  or  less  similar 
in  all  establishments.  In  every  investigation  of 
this  kind,  the  time  arrives  when  the  reports  of 
field  workers  begin  to  repeat  facts  already  learned, 
and  when  each  record  contains  less  new  informa- 
tion than  that  secured  during  the  first  interviews. 
When  the  repetition  on  all  important  points  has 
been  frequent  enough  to  constitute  corroborative 
evidence,  it  is  time  to  apply  objective  tests  to  the 
data  at  hand  to  determine  whether  the  field  work 
may  safely  be  terminated  or  whether  more  data 

ix 


PREFACE 

must  be  secured.  Census  figures  regarding  wages, 
factory  inspectors'  reports  concerning  hours  of 
work,  information  found  in  trade  journals,  and 
advertisements  for  workers  published  in  daily  news- 
papers, afford  corroboration  of  the  reliability  of 
statements  made  in  interviews.  No  a  priori  judg- 
ment of  the  numbers  to  be  studied  can  be  relied 
upon. 

The  preliminary  field  work  in  this  investigation 
was  begun  in  the  spring  of  1910.  Interviews  with 
workers  were  continued  until  the  summer  of  19 12. 
The  investigation  was  made  simultaneously  with 
other  investigations  of  women  at  work  in  New 
York,  and  constant  comparison  with  conditions 
in  other  occupations  made  possible  a  sounder  inter- 
pretation of  results  than  would  otherwise  have 
been  possible.  The  investigators  who  took  part 
in  the  field  work  were  Miss  Louise  C.  Odencrantz, 
Miss  Alice  P.  Barrows,  Miss  Elizabeth  L.  Meigs, 
and  the  writer,  who  directed  the  inquiry.  To 
Miss  Odencrantz  we  are  indebted  also  for  the 
compilation  of  statistics.  The  comparative  study 
of  conditions  of  employment  in  the  artificial  flower 
trade  in  Paris  was  made  by  Miss  Elizabeth  S. 
Sergeant.  Before  leaving  New  York,  Miss  Ser- 
geant accompanied  one  of  our  investigators  in 
some  of  her  visits,  and  thus  was  enabled  to  seek  in 
Paris  information  comparable  with  facts  already 
secured  in  New  York.  It  should  be  added  that  in 
order  to  have  any  errors  detected  and  to  secure 
the  benefit  of  criticisms   by  the  trade,  we  sub- 


PREFACE 

mitted  the  manuscript  to  an  employer  and  to  a 
flower  maker  of  many  years'  experience,  who  con- 
firmed the  accuracy  of  the  facts  presented  in  the 
study. 


XI 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


Preface   . 

List  of  Illustrations 

List  of  Tables    . 


I .  The  Artificial  Flower  Trade    . 
II.  Workers  in  the  Shops 

III.  The  Seasons  and  Unemployment   . 

IV.  Wages  and  Home  Responsibilities  . 
V.  A  Group  of  Home  Workers     .       .  / 

VI.  The  Flower  Trade  and  the  Law     . 
VII.  The  Artificial  Flower  Trade  in  Paris 
VIII.  The  Training  of  Flower  Makers     . 
IX.  Summary 


PAGE 

v 
xv 

xvii 

I 

23 

40 

58 
90 
118 
144 
191 
213 


APPENDICES 

A.  Record  Cards  Used  in  the  Investigation   .       .       .  227 

B.  Opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York  on  the 

Fifty-four  Hour  Law 236 

C.  Law  Enacted  March,  19 13,  Prohibiting  Night  Work 

for  all  Women 246 

D.  Society  for  Apprentices,  Paris,  France      .       .       .  247 

Index 253 


XIII 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

Photographs  by  Lewis  W.  Hine 


FACING 
PAGE 


Finishing  a  Rose Frontispiece 

A  Feather  Factory 12 

Making  Roses,  Piece  Work 12 

Making  Hearts  for  Roses 24 

Goffering  Rose  Petals 24 

A  Corner  of  a  Large  Broadway  Factory    ....  34 

Branching  Roses 34 

A  Cutter  with  Heavy  Hammer 46 

Coloring  the  Petals 46 

A  Building  which  Houses  Three  Flower  Factories  .  56 
Once  a  Residence,  now  a  Flower  Factory  .       .               -56 

Making  Foliage 68 

Pressing  Petals 68 

Goffering  and  Pressing .80 

Arranging  Flowers  and  Leaves 80 

A  Home  Worker  carrying  Violets  to  the  Factory  in 

School  Hours 92 

Delivering  Flowers  made  at  Home 92 

All  the  Family  Work 100 

Flower  Making  after  School 100 

Child  Toilers  who  work  more  regularly  than  their  Father  1 12 
Carrying  Flowers  from  Home  to  Factory  .       .       .       .112 

A  Former  Dwelling  House  containing  Two  Factories     .  120 

Feather  Makers 120 

Inflammable  Material  is  hung  near  Unguarded  Gas  Jets.  130 

An  Attic  Workroom 130 

xv 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PACING 
PAGE 

A  Dark  and  Dilapidated  Workroom 143 

Carrying  Home  the  Petals  to  make  Flowers     .       .       .143 

Crimping  Petals 152 

A  Workroom  in  a  One-Time  Residence,  New  York  .       .152 

Rose  Makers,  New  York 160 

Preparing  the  Petals,  New  York 160 

A  Learner  Bringing  Lunches  to  the  Workroom        .       .   192 
The  Processes  of  Feather  Making       .       .       .*  .192 

Making  Willow  Plumes 208 

Rose  Making  and  Branching 208 


xvi 


LIST  OF  TABLES 

TABLE  PAGE 

i.  The  artificial  flower  and  feather  making  industry  of 

the  United  States 4 

2.  Ages  of  women  employed  in  all  manufacturing  indus- 

tries, in  artificial  flower  making,  and  in  other  speci- 
fied industries,  New  York  City,  1900      ...     25 

3.  Nativity  of  parents  of  women  employed  in  artificial 

flower  making,  New  York  City        ....     29 

4.  Women  wage-earners  by  nativity  of  parents  and  gen- 

eral occupations.    New  York  City,  1 900       .  31 

5.  Length  of  busy  season  of  year  in  artificial  flower 

shops 41 

6.  Length  of  slack  season  of  year  in  artificial  flower 

shops 42 

7.  Month  of  beginning  of  busy  season  in  artificial  flower 

shops 45 

8.  Month  of  ending  of  busy  season  in  artificial  flower 

shops     . 45 

9.  Length  of  time  for  which  women  were  employed  in 

latest  positions  in  artificial  flower  trade  ...     46 

10.  Reasons  for  leaving  positions  in  artificial  flower  shops, 

as  stated  by  artificial  flower  makers        .       .  49 

11.  Time  lost  in  the  year  preceding  date  of  interview 

from  all  causes  by  women  employed  in  artificial 
flower  making 50 

12.  Time  lost  in  the  year  preceding  date  of  interview  be- 

cause of  slack  season,  by  women  employed  in  arti- 
ficial flower  making 51 

13.  Artificial  flower  shops,  by  maximum  weekly  wages 

paid  to  women 59 

xvii 


LIST   OF   TABLES 

TABLE  PAGE 

14.  Women  employed  in  artificial  flower  shops,  by  maxi- 

mum weekly  wages  paid  to  women  in  the  shops  in 
which  they  were  employed 59 

1 5.  Weekly  earnings  of  men  and  women  employed  in  the 

artificial  flower  and  feather  making  industry,  and 
of  women  employed  in  all  manufacturing  indus- 
tries, United  States,  1905 61 

16.  Weekly  wages  of  women  employed  in  artificial  flower 

making  by  years  of  employment  in  the  trade        .     65 

17.  Weekly  wages  of  Italian  women  and  of  women  of 

other  nationalities  employed  in  flower  making,  by 
years  of  employment  in  the  trade    ....     69 

18.  Approximate  yearly  income  of  women  employed  in 

artificial  flower  making  who  had  been  wage- 
earners  not  less  than  one  year       .       .       .  71 

19.  Monthly  rent  paid  by  families  of  women  employed 

in  artificial  flower  making 84 

20.  Ages  of  home  workers  in  families  making  artificial 

flowers  at  home 100 

21.  Ages  and  grades  in  New  York  public  schools  of  chil- 

dren making  artificial  flowers  at  home  and  also 
attending  school 102 

22.  Weekly  earnings  of  families  from  home  work  on  arti- 

ficial flowers,  by  number  of  home  workers  in  each 
family 106 

23.  Occupations  of  fathers  in  families  doing  home  work 

on  artificial  flowers 113 

24.  Length  of  residence  in  the  United  States  of  foreign- 

born  parents  in  families  making  artificial  flowers 
at  home 115 

25.  Daily  hours  of  work,  when  not  working  overtime,  of 

women  employed  in  artificial  flower  shops  .       .124 

26.  Hours  at  which  women  employed  in  artificial  flower 

shops  began  work 124 

27.  Hours  at  which  women  employed  in  artificial  flower 

shops  left  work  when  not  working  overtime  .        .125 
xviii 


LIST  OF   TABLES 

TABLE  PAGE 

28.  Length  of  noon  recess  of  women  employed  in  arti- 

ficial flower  shops 126 

29.  Weekly  hours  of  work,  when  not  working  overtime, 

of  women  employed  in  artificial  flower  shops     .    127 

30.  Violations  in  artificial  flower  establishments  of  laws 

restricting  the  employment  of  women  and  children  133 

31.  Persons  per  room  in  families  making  artificial  flowers 

at  home 139 

32.  Yearly  earnings  of  85  Parisian  women  working  at 

home    alone,    on    three    specialties    in    artificial 
flowers 172 

33.  Daily  earnings  in  the  busy  season  of  79  Parisian 

women  working  at  home  alone  on  three  specialties 
in  artificial  flowers 173 

34.  Daily  hours  of  work  of  Parisian  home  workers  on 

artificial  flowers 177 

35.  Artificial  flower  shops  employing  women  as  learners, 

by  weekly  wages  of  learners 199 

36.  Age  at  leaving  school  of  women  employed  in  artificial 

flower  making 203 


xix 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  ARTIFICIAL  FLOWER  TRADE 

IN  the  making  of  a  flower  the  hand  worker  has 
no  mechanical  rival.  No  inventor  has  been 
able  to  harness  electricity  or  steam  to  any 
instrument  which  can  reproduce  the  deft  twist  of 
the  skilled  rose  maker's  fingers,  or  the  discrimi- 
nating touch  of  the  worker  who  tastefully  groups 
together  leaves  and  finished  flowers.  The  nature 
of  the  product,  the  absence  of  machinery,  and 
as  a  result  the  lack  of  change  in  fundamental 
processes,  make  this  industry  unique  among  the 
important  wage-earning  pursuits  of  women.  Never- 
theless, even  without  machines,  which  are  com- 
monly considered  the  prime  factors  in  producing 
industrial  revolution,  the  artificial  flower  trade  in 
New  York  has  not  escaped  industrial  changes. 
It  is  today  not  a  handicraft  but  a  factory  industry 
in  which  many  evils  of  the  factory  system  have 
robbed  the  occupation  of  its  artistic  possibilities. 
Flower  making  as  an  art  has  been  practiced  in 
Europe  for  nearly  two  centuries.  Its  exercise  does 
not  belong  to  any  one  people,  although  the  indus- 
try has  now  become  associated  chiefly  with  the 
French.  But  from  early  times  the  Romans  and 
Egyptians,  as  well  as  the  Chinese,  had  made  arti- 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

ficial  flowers  out  of  various  precious  materials, 
and  in  more  modern  days  the  people  of  tropical 
islands  have  made  them  in  quaint  and  formal 
designs  out  of  tiny,  delicately  colored  shells  and 
feathers.  Seafaring  men  in  the  days  of  the  West 
and  East  India  trade  in  this  country  used  to  bring 
these  shell  and  feather  flowers  home  to  their  fam- 
ilies in  glass-covered  boxes,  as  New  England  par- 
lors (and  attics)  can  still  bear  testimony.  It  is 
said  that  Italy  introduced  the  art  of  flower  making 
into  France,  and  from  thence  fleeing  Huguenots 
carried  it  across  the  channel  to  England.  It  was 
through  French  immigrants,  too,  that  the  art  was 
brought  to  this  country. 

In  an  article  on  this  trade,  its  introduction  here 
is  thus  described:  *  "It  was  necessary  that  these 
strangers  should  live,  and  one  of  the  first  industries 
they  took  up  was  artificial  flower  making.  We 
had  at  that  time  few  greenhouses,  and  those  which 
existed  contributed  very  little  to  the  daily  supply 
of  the  citizens.  But  artificial  flowers  are  permanent, 
lasting  a  year  or  so  if  required,  and  they  serve 
as  cheap  decorations  for  ladies'  hats  and  bonnets. f 
For  the  same  purpose  feathers  were  used,  and  it 
became  the  custom  to  unite  the  two  industries  in 

*  Depew,  C.  M.;  One  Hundred  Years  of  American  Commerce, 
Vol.  II,  p.  671.     New  York,  D.  O.  Haynes  and  Co.,  1895. 

t  In  a  letter  dated  June  2,  1799,  Jane  Austen  in  England  wrote, 
"Flowers  are  very  much  worn  and  fruit  is  still  more  the  thing. 
Elizabeth  has  a  bunch  of  strawberries,  and  I  have  seen  grapes,  cher- 
ries, plums,  and  apricots." — Austen,  Jane:  Letters.  Edited  by  Ed- 
ward, Lord  Brabourne.  Vol.  I,  p.  212.  London,  Richard  Bentley 
and  Son,  1884. 


THE    ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   TRADE 

the  same  shop.  As  long  ago  as  1840  there  were 
10  manufacturers  in  this  line  in  New  York, 
T.  Chagot  being  the  chief.  He  was  an  importer 
as  well  as  a  manufacturer,  his  place  being  at  24 
Maiden  Lane.  The  others  were  nearly  all  in 
William  Street.  In  1847  the  number  had  in- 
creased to  24." 

From  that  time  the  trade  has  grown  in  this 
country,  but  official  statistics  showing  its  history 
are  very  meager  and  unsatisfactory.  The  union 
of  feather  making  with  flower  making  is  still  a 
marked  characteristic  of  the  industry,  and  the 
two  are  combined  in  census  figures.  In  1850, 
according  to  the  recent  official  report  on  the 
history  of  women  in  industry,  the  number  of 
women  employed  in  these  two  allied  occupations 
was  372.*  In  1870,  1,114  women  were  recorded 
as  flower  and  feather  makers.  The  figures  for 
the  census  years  from  1880  to  19 10  are  given  in 
Table  1 . 

An  interesting  point  regarding  the  comparative 
importance  of  the  trade  in  1900  and  1905,  was  sug- 
gested in  the  census  of  1905  in  which  the  state- 
ment was  made  that  the  artificial  flower  and 
feather  trade  seemed  to  show  "a  decreased  pro- 
duction between  the  two  census  periods"  (1900 
and  1905);  that  it  was  "possible  that  the  de- 
crease was  caused  by  a  reduced  demand  for  these 


*  Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-earners  in  the 
United  States.  Vol.  IX,  History  of  Women  in  Industry  in  the  United 
States,  p.  253.     U.  S.  Senate  document  No.  645. 

3 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 


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THE    ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   TRADE 

goods."  It  will  be  noted  that  the  number  of 
establishments  had  fallen  from  224  in  1900  to  21 3 
in  1905,  value  of  products  from  $6,293,235  to 
$5,246,822,  and  the  number  of  women  employed 
from  4,191  to  3,545.  An  alternative  interpreta- 
tion, given  in  the  same  report,  however,  was  that 
possibly  a  large  quantity  of  this  class  of  goods  was 
included  under  the  head  of  "millinery  and  lace 
goods/'  Thus  the  apparent  decrease  in  flower 
and  feather  making  during  the  five  years  between 
1900  and  1905  may  have  been  due  to  a  change  in 
the  method  of  counting  rather  than  to  an  actual 
change  in  trade  conditions. 

One  enthusiastic  employer  whose  father  before 
him  had  been  in  the  business  all  his  life,  declared 
that  the  flower  trade  was  "the  coming  industry 
of  America. "  Whether  or  not  so  great  a  degree 
of  enthusiasm  is  justified,  this  investigation  of  the 
trade  in  New  York  does  not  indicate  that  it  is 
declining,  for  the  records  of  the  flower  factories 
visited  show  that  in  the  busy  season  nearly  6,000 
women  are  employed  in  flower  making  alone,  not 
counting  the  feather  makers  in  the  same  estab- 
lishments, nor  the  flower  makers  who  work  in  the 
tenements.  Furthermore,  in  19 10  factory  inspec- 
tors *  visited  479  flower  and  feather  factories  in 
Greater  New  York,  which  employed  7,292  women 
and  1,231  men,  while  United  States  census  enu- 
merators recorded   the   total   number  of  wage- 

*  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor.     Report  of  Bureau  of 
Factory  Inspection,  19 10,  p.  321. 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

earners  in  these  two  trades  in  1 910  as  10,016.* 
These  figures  indicate  growth  rather  than  decrease 
in  the  importance  of  this  two-fold  industry.  Nor 
are  these  data  merely  local  in  their  significance. 
New  York  is  the  most  important  center  of  flower 
and  feather  making  in  the  United  States,  and 
conditions  there  are  a  good  index  of  the  trade 
throughout  the  country. 

This  concentration  in  one  city  is  probably  the 
most  important  characteristic  of  the  industry, 
influencing  in  a  marked  degree  the  conditions  of 
employment.  Measured  by  value  of  products, 
74.3  per  cent  of  the  flower  and  feather  trade  in 
the  United  States  in  1905  was  located  in  Man- 
hattan and  the  Bronx.f  Only  two  other  indus- 
tries in  the  whole  country  showed  a  more  marked 
localization  in  one  center;  namely,  lapidary  work 
of  which  96.5  percent  was  in  New  York,  and  collars 
and  cuffs  of  which  89. 5  per  cent  were  made  in  Troy  .J 
In  1905,  United  States  census  agents  counted  in 
New  York  City  146  flower  and  feather  factories, 
employing  440  men  and  2,827  women. §  In  the 
whole  United  States  in  the  same  year  they  found 
but  213  factories  in  this  industry,  employing  a 
total  of  604  men  and  3,545  women.     Thus  four- 

•  The  large  increase  in  1910  as  compared  with  1905  is  probably  due 
in  part  to  the  abnormal  demand  for  willow  plumes  in  the  census  year 
1910.  This  demand  soon  lessened  and  a  census  taken  now  would 
doubtless  show  less  violent  change  since  1905. 

t  Twelfth  United  States  Census,  1905.  Manufactures,  Part  I,  p. 
cclix. 

t  Ibid,  Part  I,  p.  cclix. 

§  Ibid,  Part  II,  p.  770. 


THE   ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  TRADE 

fifths  of  the  entire  number  of  women  employed 
in  the  trade  throughout  the  country  were  working 
in  New  York.  Of  the  remainder,  336  were  in 
Philadelphia,  130  in  Chicago,  103  in  Baltimore, 
and  56  in  West  Hoboken.*  In  all,  about  700  were 
outside  New  York.f 

The  story  of  an  expert  flower  maker,  inter- 
viewed in  this  investigation,  is  an  illustration  of 
the  way  in  which  this  localization  influences 
workers  to  live  in  Manhattan  and  to  increase  the 
congestion  of  population  there.  After  ten  years' 
experience  in  the  trade  in  New  York,  this  woman 
married  and  went  to  Baltimore  to  live.  Her  hus- 
band was  a  tailor,  earning  $15  a  week  in  busy 
seasons,  but  in  slack  seasons  his  wages  were  often 
cut  in  half  and  occasionally  a  prolonged  strike 
meant  the  loss  of  all  earnings.  Twice  when  her 
husband  had  little  or  no  work,  the  woman  re- 
turned to  New  York  with  her  children  and  went 
to  work  in  a  flower  factory.  She  has  now  con- 
cluded that  it  will  be  best  for  the  whole  family  to 
stay  in  Manhattan.  "  My  trade's  here,"  she  says. 
"  I  know  of  only  one  flower  factory  in  Baltimore 
and  they  don't  pay  as  good  wages  as  here."  But 
she  added  regretfully,  "I  like  Baltimore  better. 
We  had  six  rooms  for  $12.  Here  we  pay  $10  for 
one  room  and  there's  no  conveniences.  If  I'd 
been  educated  I  could  have  gotten  work  in  Balti- 

*  Twelfth  United  States  Census,  1905.  Manufactures,  Part  II, 
pp.  978,  232,  412,  691. 

t  Figures  from  census  of  1910  which  would  be  comparable  with 
those  for  1905  are  not  yet  available. 

7 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

more,  but  I  only  know  my  trade  and  it's  in  New 
York." 

Concentration  in  New  York  is  accompanied  by 
congestion  of  the  flower  shops  in  a  small  and  flower- 
less  district  south  of  Fourteenth  Street  and  west 
of  Broadway.  In  the  course  of  this  investigation 
only  four  flower  factories  were  found  north  of 
Fourteenth  Street,  while  124  were  south  of  it, — 28 
on  Broadway,  21  east  of  Broadway,  and  75  west 
of  it.  The  firms  brave  enough  to  move  north  of 
Fourteenth  Street  are  those  whose  reputation  is 
sufficiently  established  to  attract  buyers  away 
from  their  usual  haunts.  These  buyers  are  the 
agents  of  milliners  not  from  New  York  alone  but 
from  every  state  in  the  union,  and  their  market 
for  buying  all  millinery  supplies  is  the  wholesale 
millinery  district  in  the  neighborhood  of  Broad- 
way between  Prince  and  Fourteenth  Streets. 
Thus  the  flower  manufacturer  regards  this  dis- 
trict as  the  Mecca  of  his  trade. 

Flower  making  is  not  an  independent  but  a  sub- 
sidiary industry,  chiefly  controlled  by  conditions 
in  the  millinery  trade  to  which  it  is  a  contributor. 
It  is  true  that  a  minor  branch  of  artificial  flower 
manufacture  has  always  been  concerned  with  the 
making  of  flowers  and  plants  as  decorations  for 
houses,  theaters,  or  stores,  but  the  materials  used 
are  coarser,  the  designs  different,  and  the  processes 
by  no  means  identical.  Workers  who  make  flowers 
for  decorations  do  not  turn  easily  to  the  making  of 
roses  and  violets  for  hat  trimmings,  and  the  two 

8 


THE   ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  TRADE 

types  of  shops,  therefore,  represent  quite  different 
occupations.  Compare,  for  example,  the  cherry 
blossoms  used  on  an  Easter  hat  with  the  full- 
blown blossoms  on  the  branches  of  a  cherry  tree, 
used  in  some  store  window  as  a  background  for  a 
display  of  Japanese  kimonos.  Only  10  shops 
manufacturing  such  decorations  were  found  in 
New  York  in  the  course  of  this  inquiry.  Much 
more  important  is  the  production  of  flowers  for 
milliners,  and  it  is  the  work  of  women  in  this 
branch  of  the  industry  which  is  the  subject  of 
these  chapters. 

The  millinery  trade  has  many  ramifications.  If 
"it  takes  nine  tailors  to  make  a  man"  it  takes 
twice  nine  workers  to  make  a  woman's  hat.  The 
shapes  are  made  in  straw  hat  factories,  felt  hat 
factories,  and  wire  frame  factories.  Trimmings 
are  produced  in  artificial  flower  shops,  feather  fac- 
tories, ribbon  factories,  and  in  workrooms  for  the 
manufacture  of  such  miscellaneous  supplies  as  jet 
ornaments,  bandeaus,  shirred  chiffon,  and  pom- 
pons. All  these  materials  are  bought  by  the  pro- 
prietors of  those  retail  millinery  shops  which  we 
as  private  customers  know  best,  and  are  there 
used  in  the  final  processes  of  hat  trimming.  They 
are  bought  also  by  wholesale  milliners  to  supply 
the  salesmen  and  jobbers  who  come  from  north, 
south,  and  west  to  buy  hats  by  the  dozens  to  be 
sold  in  New  England,  Louisiana,  California,  or 
Texas. 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 

Nor  is  the  millinery  industry  a  simple,  well- 
organized  business  with  branches  clearly  defined. 
Some  firms  are  both  wholesalers  and  retailers, 
selling  either  to  private  customers  who  buy  one 
hat  at  a  time,  or  to  middlemen  or  other  milliners 
who  purchase  in  quantities  for  sale  to  their  own 
customers.  Some  wholesale  milliners  not  only 
trim  dozens  of  one  style  of  headgear,  but  also 
manufacture  the  straw  shapes  on  which  to  put  the 
trimming.  Manufacturers  of  straw  hats  occa- 
sionally add  trimming  departments.  In  some 
retail  establishments  all  the  wire  frames  are  made 
in  the  shop,  while  other  retail  milliners  buy  these 
frames  from  wire  frame  factories.  Some  whole- 
sale milliners  have  departments  for  manufacturing 
flowers  and  feathers,  while  some  manufacturers 
of  flowers  and  feathers  are  also  hat  trimmers,  in 
order  the  better  to  sell  their  products  by  showing 
their  use  on  hats.  Furthermore,  this  grouping  of 
branches  of  the  trade  under  the  same  roof  varies 
from  season  to  season  according  to  the  demands 
of  fashion. 

In  New  York  is  found  all  this  confusion  of  mil- 
linery. Besides  its  large  retail  trade,  it  has  a 
wholesale  trade  unequalled  in  importance  by  that 
of  any  other  city  in  the  country.  The  census  enu- 
merators in  1905  *  counted  in  New  York  13,511 
women  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  millinery 
and  lace  goods,  a  group  in  which  wholesale  mil- 

♦Twelfth  United  States  Census,  1905.     Manufactures,  Part  II, 
P-  775- 

IO 


THE  ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  TRADE 

liners  decidedly  predominate  over  the  lace  goods 
makers  counted  with  them.  The  second  city  in 
importance  in  this  industry  was  Chicago  with 
2,298  women  workers. 

In  this  kaleidoscopic  group  of  occupations  essen- 
tial to  the  making  of  a  woman's  hat,  artificial 
flower  making  is  clearly  a  dependent  in  its  posi- 
tion, with  seasons,  hours,  and  even  wages  largely 
determined  by  conditions  in  other  branches  of  the 
industry.  It  cannot  be  more  prosperous  than  the 
millinery  shops.  If  unseasonable  weather,  or  a 
drop  in  the  stock  market,  makes  the  sale  of  hats 
less  lively  on  Fifth  Avenue,  or  in  California,  the 
artificial  flower  makers  in  New  York  suffer.  On 
the  other  hand,  though  the  milliners  may  rejoice 
in  a  profitable  season,  they  do  not  necessarily  share 
their  profits  with  flower  manufacturers,  for  fash- 
ion may  have  decreed  that  hats  shall  be  trimmed 
not  with  flowers  but  with  jet  ornaments,  or  ribbon, 
or  feathers. 

Of  all  the  products  of  the  millinery  trade  fancy 
feathers  *  are  most  closely  related  to  artificial 
flowers.  Fashion  has  the  habit  of  regarding  the 
two  products  as  substitutes  for  one  another  as 
trimming,  using  more  feathers  in  winter  and  more 
flowers  in  summer.  This  has  led  to  a  dove-tailing 
of  the  seasons  which  makes  it  desirable  to  carry 

*  The  feather  trade  has  two  branches,  fancy  feathers  and  ostrich 
feathers.  The  ostrich  feather  establishments  are  not  connected  as 
closely  as  fancy  feather  factories  with  any  other  branch  of  the  indus- 
try, and  are  more  independent, — possibly  because  the  use  of  ostrich 
feathers  is  approved  at  all  times  by  fashion. 

n 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 

on  both  trades  under  the  same  roof,  with  advan- 
tage to  employers  and  to  workers.  Employers 
thus  prolong  the  season  for  their  sales,  and  work- 
ers by  learning  both  trades  may  be  employed 
more  months  in  the  year. 

In  spite  of  this  close  connection,  however,  it  has  ' 
seemed  advisable  in  making  this  investigation  to 
study  the  artificial  flower  trade  as  a  separate  occu- 
pation, and  to  describe  the  fancy  feather  trade 
only  in  an  incidental  way  as  throwing  light  on 
conditions  of  employment,  especially  in  regard  to 
seasons,  in  flower  shops.  Obviously  the  products 
and  materials  used  are  different,  and  the  processes 
of  work  although  similar  are  by  no  means  identi- 
cal. An  experienced  flower  maker  must  become 
a  learner  again  if  she  would  master  the  feather 
trade.  Furthermore,  some  shops  manufacture 
flowers  only.  Where  both  flowers  and  feathers 
are  made  in  the  same  shop,  the  tendency  is  for  the 
manufacturer  to  specialize  in  the  sale  of  one  or 
the  other*.  One  manufacturer  whose  sign  read 
"Flowers  and  feathers,"  said  that  his  specialty 
was  flowers  and  that  he  never  made  feathers  ex- 
cept in  years  when  flowers  were  not  in  demand; 
his  sign  was  intended  to  provide  for  such  emer- 
gencies. Workers  often  make  flowers  only,  and 
never  learn  the  processes  of  feather  manufacture. 
Home  workers  in  the  flower  trade  are  usually  a 
distinct  group  having  no  connection  with  the 
feather  trade. 

On  the  other  hand,  although  the  two  occupa- 

12 


W 


A  Feather  Factory 


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Making  Roses,  Piece  Work 


THE   ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   TRADE 

tions  are  distinct  in  so  many  respects,  their  close 
intertwining  creates  difficulties  in  considering 
them  separately.  It  is  hard  to  secure  clear-cut 
information  in  interviews  with  employers  or 
workers  engaged  in  both  trades.  The  fact  that 
the  official  reports  of  factory  inspectors  and  cen- 
sus enumerators  include  data  on  feather  and 
flower  making  combined  has  already  been  noted. 
This  very  lack  of  distinct  information,  however, 
may  be  considered  an  added  reason  for  separate 
study. 

Nothing  in  the  nature  of  the  work  would  pre- 
vent one  flower  maker  from  carrying  on  a  business 
independently.  She  could  design  and  execute,  using 
real  flowers  as  models,  and  sell  direct  to  private 
customers.  Such  a  plan  might  make  the  work  an 
art  to  be  practiced  in  a  professional  spirit,  with 
pride  in  the  creation  of  a  beautiful  object.  In 
fact,  just  such  a  spirit  animates  some  of  the 
women  who  make  the  exquisite  Parisian  flowers. 
Usually  the  history  of  a  trade  shows  that  the 
coming  of  machines  has  substituted  the  factory 
system  for  this  artist  method,  as  for  example,  in 
the  binding  of  books.  In  flower  making,  it  is  not 
machinery  but  the  organization  of  the  market 
which  has  turned  an  art  into  a  trade.  Because  a 
manufacturer  sells  a  hundred  gross  of  flowers  to  a 
wholesale  milliner  instead  of  two  or  three  beauti- 
ful roses  to  a  private  customer,  he  organizes  a  shop 
and  employs  many  workers  who  are  driven  by  the 
necessity  to  swell  the  volume  of  production  rather 

*3 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

than  by  the  desire  to  create  a  perfect  and  beauti- 
ful object. 

The  raw  materials  used  in  the  making  of  flowers 
are  chiefly  muslin,  silk,  and  velvet.*  These  are 
bought  from  other  manufacturers  and  come  in 
large  bolts  apparently  ready  for  the  counter  of  a 
department  store.  Usually  white  is  used,  and  the 
color  applied  later.  In  preparation  for  the  mak- 
ing of  leaves  or  flowers,  the  material  is  cut  off  in  a 
strip  usually  a  yard  and  a  half  long  and  stretched 
on  a  wooden  frame.  Starch  is  then  applied  with 
a  brush  to  give  the  required  stiffness  to  the  goods. 
If  leaves  are  to  be  made,  the  green  color  is  brushed 
on  while  the  muslin  is  on  the  frame;  if  flowers, 
the  dyeing  is  done  later,  after  the  muslin  or  silk  or 
velvet  has  been  taken  from  the  frame  and  cut  into 
petals  in  the  cutting  department.  The  tools  for 
the  cutting  are  a  steel  die  or  stamp,  a  lead  block, 
and  a  wooden  mallet. f  As  soon  as  the  petals  are 
cut  they  are  ready  to  be  dyed. 

In  the  selection  of  the  color  fashion  is  as  much 
in  control  as  in  any  other  department  of  the  milli- 
nery industry;  for  if  the  shade  of  its  petal  be  not 
fashionable,  the  flower  will  not  sell.  Color  charts 
are  secured  from  Paris  each  season,  and  the  dyer 
has  a  chart  constantly  before  him  as  a  guide.     It  is 

*  Contributory  industries  supply  also  powders  for  dyes,  wire  of 
various  kinds,  tools,  muslin,  and  rubber  tubes  for  stems,  tiny  peps 
which  form  the  center  of  the  flowers,  tied  buds  for  roses,  and  some- 
times leaves. 

t  A  cutting  machine  is  on  the  market  but  seems  to  be  seldom  used. 

14 


THE    ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   TRADE 

the  task  of  the  dyer  not  only  to  dissolve  the  pow- 
dered aniline  but  to  mix  it  so  as  to  produce  exactly 
the  colors  displayed  on  the  Parisian  chart  or  those 
ordered  by  the  designer  in  the  shop.  The  dye 
must  then  be  applied  in  exactly  the  right  way  to 
each  petal.  Sometimes  petals  are  stenciled,  as  for 
example  in  the  making  of  an  orchid.  The  finished 
petals  are  finally  laid  out  to  dry  between  sheets  in 
a  wire  frame.  For  the  best  grade  of  flowers  they 
are  dried  naturally;  in  some  shops  they  are  dried 
in  a  room  artificially  heated.  These  processes  of 
starching,  cutting,  and  dyeing  are  done  usually  by 
men,*  and  it  is  not  until  the  dyeing  of  the  petals 
is  completed  that  the  girls'  work  begins. 

Their  work  has  three  main  divisions :  preparing, 
making,  and  branching.  The  petals  when  cut  are 
flat,  and  except  in  color  and  outline  they  bear 
small  resemblance  to  any  part  of  a  flower.  To 
"prepare"  them  means  to  shape  them  by  curling 
their  edges,  pinching  them  between  the  fingers,  or 
"goffering"  them.  Goffering  is  the  making  of 
the  cup-like  shape  such  as  that  of  a  rose  petal,  and 
it  is  done  with  a  tool  consisting  of  a  ball  at  the  end 
of  a  handle.  This  ball  is  heated  on  a  gas  stove  and 
applied  to  each  petal  as  it  rests  on  the  cup-like 
palm  of  the  handjVCrimping  machines  are  used 
in  some  factories,  Jfrut  only  for  cheap  flowers. 

Mi 

*  A  woman  does  th/cwcing  in  one  factory,  but  she  is  said  to  be  the 
only  woman  in  the/city/ who  has  learned  this  process.  Some  em- 
ployers say  that  the  dyers  jealously  guard  their  methods  as  trade 
secrets,  and  woula  certainly  be  unwilling  to  teach  women  to  be  their 
competitors. 


15 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

"Making"  includes  all  the  processes  of  arrang- 
ing the  separate  petals  to  form  the  flower,  and  at- 
taching the  stem.  In  the  making  of  a  rose,  for 
example,  the  petals  used  are  of  different  sizes. 
Each  must  be  pasted  in  its  appointed  place  about 
a  center  attached  to  a  wire  which  when  bound  in 
green  forms  the  stem.  In  some  models  the  petals 
are  not  pasted  on  in  this  way  but  are  "  slipped-up  " ; 
that  is,  the  stem  is  inserted  through  a  hole  in  each 
petal  which  is  then  "slipped-up"  into  its  place  and 
held  with  paste.  In  making  cheap  flowers  this 
single  process  takes  the  place  of  preparing  as  well 
as  of  making.  After  the  petals  are  cut,  piles  of  a 
dozen  or  more  are  put  in  the  "punching  and  gof- 
fering machine"  which  at  one  stroke  punches  a 
hole  through  the  center  and  rounds  the  petals  into 
a  cup  shape.  The  makers  simply  pull  the  petals 
apart,  slip  the  stem  through  the  hole,  slip  the  petal 
up  the  stem,  and  pinch  it  into  place  about  the 
"  peps  "  or  bud  which  forms  the  center.  This  proc- 
ess is  flower  making  reduced  to  its  simplest  terms, 
requiring  neither  taste  nor  skill  but  demanding 
merely  an  easily  acquired  deftness  of  touch  which 
makes  speed  possible. 

Leaves  are  sometimes  made  in  separate  factories. 
After  they  have  been  cut  with  hammer  and  die 
from  the  green-dyed  muslin,  which  has  been 
starched  and  colored  while  stretched  on  a  frame, 
a  stem  is  pasted  to  each  leaf, — an  unskilled  and 
monotonous  process  done  sometimes  by  girls, 
sometimes  by  boys.     When  the  stem  is  attached 

16 


THE   ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   TRADE 

the  leaf  is  veined.  This  is  done  on  a  pressing  ma- 
chine moved  by  a  hand  wheel  not  unlike  an  ordi- 
nary letter  press.  It  also  is  unskilled  work  but 
requires  speed  and  greater  strength  than  is  needed 
for  any  other  process  done  by  girls  in  this  trade. 

When  flowers  and  leaves  are  completed  they  are 
brought  together  and  deftly  arranged  to  appear 
pleasing  to  the  customer.  This  is  called  branch- 
ing and  is  considered  the  most  skilled  work  in  the 
trade.  Its  success  depends  entirely  upon  taste, 
deftness  of  touch,  and  readiness  in  understanding 
the  thought  of  the  designer  who  planned  the  model.  * 

All  the  work  involved  in  this  construction  of  a 
bunch  of  artificial  flowers  may  be  wasted  if  they 
are  not  of  the  form,  color,  and  size  to  be  popular 
in  the  market.  The  success  of  a  firm  depends, 
therefore,  upon  the  work  of  designing  and  of 
making  samples  to  be  copied  in  the  workroom.  It 
is  said  that  few  designers  worthy  of  the  name  are  to 
be  found  in  New  York.  In  the  better  grade  of 
factory,  the  models  are  flowers  that  have  been  de- 
signed and  made  in  Paris.  In  the  cheaper  grade, 
the  product  of  the  higher  grade  factory  is  copied. f 

Sometimes  the  manager  is  responsible  for  the 
designs.  He  buys  an  imported  sample,  or  brings  a 
real  flower  to  the  factory,  as  suggestion  for  a  model 

*  The  final  work  is  to  arrange  the  flowers  in  boxes  not  only  for 
shipping,  but  for  display  in  the  showrooms  of  wholesale  milliners. 
New  York  readers  will  recall  these  displays  in  the  windows  of  shops 
in  lower  Broadway.  In  large  factories  packers  have  no  opportunity 
to  learn  to  make  flowers. 

t  Manufacturers  complain  that  rival  firms  send  girls  into  their 
workrooms  to  stay  two  or  three  days  and  steal  the  styles. 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

which  he  explains  fully  to  the  sample  makers.  He 
must  understand  the  prevailing  millinery  styles  so 
well  as  to  be  able  to  prophesy  the  probable  success 
of  the  design.  On  the  basis  of  this  prophecy,  he 
must  purchase  the  right  materials,  tell  the  dyer 
what  shade  is  needed,  order  the  right  number  of 
petals  to  be  cut,  and  explain  to  the  girls  exactly 
how  to  prepare,  make,  and  branch  the  flower.  The 
models  prepared  by  the  sample  makers  stand  be- 
fore their  eyes  for  copying.  After  the  sample  flow- 
ers are  finished  success  depends  on  the  salesmen 
who  go  out  to  solicit  orders,  or  on  the  fancy  of 
buyers  who  frequent  the  showroom. 

In  this  establishment  the  work  is  almost  all  done 
to  fill  definite  orders.  Each  model  has  its  number 
and  can  readily  be  duplicated  after  the  first  sam- 
ples have  been  shown  to  customers.  The  risk  of 
making  stock  in  advance  of  orders  is  said  to  be 
very  great  in  this  trade.  "We  cannot  tell  what 
the  leading  color  will  be,"  said  this  manager.  "A 
milliner  may  try  to  push  a  certain  color  but  if 
women  see  something  they  like  better  they  won't 
buy  what  the  milliner  offers  them."  This  view 
was  emphasized  by  a  forewoman  who  was  also  a 
designer.  "One  week  you  load  up  with  blue 
flowers,"  said  she,  "and  the  next  you  can't  get  rid 
of  them  at  any  price."  Even  in  filling  orders  the 
risk  is  not  small.  Buyers  from  the  west  may  have 
been  unwise  in  their  judgment  of  what  would  please 
their  customers,  and  after  leaving  New  York  they 
may  telegraph  cancelation.    To  sue  a  buyer  for 

18 


THE    ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   TRADE 

canceling  his  order  would  mean  the  loss  of  other 
customers,  who  would  fear  similar  treatment. 

For  example,  in  the  spring  of  1910  some  flower 
manufacturer  designed  a  species  of  wheat  which 
was  made  up  in  a  great  variety  of  colors,  regard- 
less of  the  shade  preferred  by  nature.  The  design 
became  very  popular.  One  New  York  factory 
opened  a  branch  in  Brooklyn  solely  for  its  manu- 
facture, to  secure  workers  who  were  not  available 
in  large  enough  numbers  that  season  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  New  York  establishment.  Another, 
situated  on  the  lower  west  side,  rented  a  store  in  an 
upper  east  side  street  and  sought  out  home  workers 
in  a  district  not  hitherto  exploited  by  the  flower 
trade.  Suddenly  the  demand  for  wheat  collapsed, 
as  though  this  artificial  product  were  trying  to 
simulate  the  power  of  the  real  model  to  create  a 
panic  on  the  Stock  Exchange.  From  all  over  the 
country  came  telegrams  canceling  orders,  and  the 
firms  in  chagrin  offered  wheat  to  purchasers  at 
prices  that  did  not  cover  the  wages  paid  the  makers. 

Fashion  is  a  sensitive  creature;  she  loves  a  model 
which  is  popular  enough  to  be  called  stylish,  but 
not  so  prevalent  as  to  be  worn  by  "everybody" 
and  thus  to  be  condemned  as  "common."  Be- 
tween what  is  fashionable  and  what  is  common  is 
a  very  short  step,  and  unless  buyers  and  jobbers 
take  account  of  this  fact  they  may  work  havoc  for 
the  flower  maker.  Capricious  fancy  is  ready  to 
adopt  the  most  whimsical  suggestions  drawn  from 
a  new  play,  or  from  nowhere  in  particular.     On 

19 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

such  uncertain  conditions  depends  in  large  meas- 
ure the  welfare  of  workers  in  the  trade.  "Our 
flower  season  usually  lasts  until  May,"  said  one 
employer.  "But  this  year  Chantecler  made  it 
stop  short  the  first  week  in  April. " 

Between  the  fine  "made"  rose  copied  from  the 
model  of  an  expert  and  the  "slipped-up"  butter- 
cup there  are  many  grades  of  flowers.  It  is  in  the 
assignment  of  the  tasks  of  preparing,  making,  and 
branching  to  one  worker,  or  their  subdivision 
among  groups,  that  firms  differ  in  their  methods. 
These  differences  in  organization  in  workrooms 
depend  upon  the  grades  of  flower  made  in  them. 
Cheap  flowers  whose  petals  are  "slipped-up"  de- 
mand no  carefully  organized  and  well-trained 
group  of  preparers  and  makers  as  do  those  which 
are  made  by  pasting  each  petal  in  its  proper 
place.  The  finer  the  flower  the  more  important  it 
is  that  it  be  prepared  and  made  by  one  hand. 
Subdivision  of  processes  does  not  produce  an 
artistic  effect. 

In  the  higher  grade  establishments  the  subdi- 
vision which  exists  is  not  according  to  process 
but  according  to  kind  of  flower, — violet,  orchid, 
or  rose,-  -each  worker  preparing  and  making  the 
whole.  Branching  is  almost  always  a  distinct  de- 
partment, although  it  is  by  no  means  unusual  for 
an  experienced  worker  in  the  trade  to  know  how 
to  branch  as  well  as  how  to  prepare  and  to  make. 
So  distinct  are  the  processes,  however,  that  there 
are  importing  firms  in  New  York  with  branching 

20 


THE   ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  TRADE 

departments  only,  the  making  having  been  com- 
pleted in  Europe.  Even  in  the  manufacture  of 
cheap  flowers  branching  requires  skill. 

The  difference  in  product  probably  accounts 
for  the  differences  of  opinion  of  employers  as  to 
whether  it  is  more  profitable  to  have  workers  spe- 
cialize in  one  process  only  or  to  make  the  whole 
flower.  Nothing  in  the  nature  of  the  task  pre- 
vents individual  work  and  all  the  artistic  results 
implied  in  thus  giving  free  scope  to  the  worker. 
It  is  the  market  a  firm  supplies  that  determines 
its  method.  If  it  cater  to  the  demand  for  a  cheap 
product  its  workers  will  specialize,  one  girl  pre- 
paring petals,  another  pasting,  because  this  makes 
greater  speed  possible.  If  it  meet  a  demand  for 
good  work  its  workers  will  probably  make  the 
whole  flower.  Large  establishments  may  combine 
both  methods,  having  some  flowers  made  by  all- 
round  workers,  and  others  divided  among  groups 
of  girls  who  press,  crimp,  goff,  paste,  or  slip-up. 
One  large  factory  has  found  it  desirable  to  have 
the  work  done  by  groups  of  three, — two  preparing 
the  petals  under  the  direction  of  the  third  who  is 
the  maker,  thus  aiming  at  the  advantages  both  of 
specialization  and  completeness.  The  preparers  see 
the  whole  process  of  making  from  the  beginning, 
while  the  maker  produces  more  rapidly  than  if  she 
worked  alone. 

Thus  the  factory  system,  without  the  use  of  ma- 
chines, has  taken  possession  of  this  trade,  not  be- 
cause the  process  requires  it,  but  because  sales 

21 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 

are  made  at  wholesale  and  volume  of  production 
is  the  aim.  The  final  step  in  organization  to  meet 
the  demand  for  the  cheap  and  plentiful  is  the  de- 
velopment of  the  home-work  system,  which  makes 
the  artificial  flower  trade  a  sweated  industry  in  New 
York.  In  the  manufacture  of  cheap  flowers  the 
only  skilled  processes  are  cutting  and  dyeing  and  the 
final  branching.  The  whole  process  between,  con- 
sisting as  it  does  only  of  slipping  up  the  petals,  can 
be  removed  from  the  factory  to  tenement  homes, 
thus  utilizing  the  labor  of  the  unskilled.  This 
practice  swells  the  volume  of  production  while 
relieving  the  employer  of  paying  for  rent  and  heat 
for  these  workers. 

Artificial  flowers  are  not  a  necessity,  and  the  de- 
mand for  them  depends  on  their  attractiveness  to 
the  milliners'  customers.  The  attractiveness  of 
the  flower  depends  in  turn  upon  the  skill  of  the 
workers.  From  this  point  of  view  the  adoption 
of  factory  methods,  followed  by  the  development 
of  sweated  forms  of  home  work,  does  not  promise 
well  for  New  York's  power  to  produce  as  beauti- 
ful a  flower  as  the  Parisian.  A  study  of  the  con- 
ditions of  women's  work  in  artificial  flower  shops 
is  a  study  not  only  of  the  welfare  of  the  workers 
but  of  the  very  life  and  future  prosperity  of  the 
industry. 


22 


CHAPTER    II 
WORKERS    IN   THE   SHOPS 

EMPLOYERS  who  confess  that  the  artificial 
flowers  made  in  the  United  States  are  not 
equal  in  workmanship  to  the  Parisian  prod- 
uct, usually  claim  that  this  inferiority  is  due  to  the 
lack  of  the  right  type  of  workers.  Many  of  these 
are  young  girls,  who  drift  into  a  flower  shop  from 
a  candy  factory,  and  out  of  it  again  to  become 
cash  girls  in  department  stores.  Employers  com- 
plain also  that  the  workrooms  are  filled  with 
foreigners.  "Formerly  Americans  and  Germans 
worked  at  the  trade,"  said  one  employer,  "and 
then  the  Italians  and  Jews  came  in  and  killed  it. 
It  has  changed  the  class  of  work.  We  cannot  com- 
pete with  them  in  cheapness  of  product.  The  only 
way  out  is  for  us  to  make  higher  class  goods,  not 
cheaper,  and  for  this  we  need  a  better  class  of  work- 
ers and  we  cannot  seem  to  attract  them/' 

A  study  of  the  workers  interviewed  in  this  in- 
vestigation, supported  by  census  data,  indicates 
a  large  proportion  of  young  girls  in  the  trade.  Of 
the  group  of  girls  interviewed  25,  or  about  14  per 
cent,  were  under  sixteen;  125,  or  72  per  cent,  were 
between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  twenty-five;  while 
only  24,  or  about  1 4  per  cent,  were  twenty-five  years 

23 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 

of  age  or  older.  Figures  given  in  the  United  States 
Census  of  1900  are  in  substantial  agreement,  show- 
ing that  of  1 ,670  flower  makers*  enumerated  in  the 
house-to-house  canvass  in  New  York  City,  233,  or 
14  per  cent,  were  under  sixteen;  1,053,  or  63  per 
cent,  between  sixteen  and  twenty-five;  and  384,  or 
2  3  per  cent,  twenty-five  or  over.  Thus  the  propor- 
tion under  sixteen  agrees  with  our  investigation, 
although  the  census  shows  a  larger  percentage  over 
twenty-five.  Official  figures  on  this  point  are  not 
yet  available  for  iajo.f  Between  our  investiga- 
tion and  the  taking  of  the  census  of  1900  here 
quoted  is  a  lapse  of  ten  years,  so  that  rigid  com- 
parison is  not  feasible.  It  is  possible  that  in  that 
decade  a  larger  proportion  of  young  girls  have 
entered  the  trade.  Or  it  may  be  that  we  inter- 
viewed younger  women,  although  judged  by  wages, 
to  be  discussed  later,!  they  were  better  paid  than 
the  group  enumerated  in  the  census.  Both  sets 
of  figures  agree,  however,  in  showing  that  a  large 
majority  are  under  twenty-five.  This  means  that 
a  considerable  proportion  of  the  present  workers 
,were  not  in  the  trade  ten  years  ago,  that  the  occu- 
pation does  not  hold  its  workers  for  many  years, 
and  that  in  a  single  decade  great  changes  occur  in 
the  personnel  of  workroom  forces.  That  so  large 
a  proportion  of  younger  workers  is  not  found  in 
all  women's  trades  is  shown  by  Table  2  and  the 

♦Twelfth  United  States  Census,  1900.    Occupations,  p.  640. 
t  For  total  number  of  wage-earners  counted  in  the  industry  in 
1910,  see  Chapter  I,  p.  4. 
t  See  Chapter  IV,  p.  66. 

24 


Making  Hearts  for  Roses 


Goffering  Rose  Petals 


WORKERS    IN    THE    SHOPS 


chart  which  follows,  giving  the  comparative  ages 
in  other  important  occupations  in  New  York. 

TABLE    2. — AGES    OF    WOMEN     EMPLOYED     IN    ALL 
MANUFACTURING    INDUSTRIES,    IN   ARTIFICIAL 
FLOWER   MAKING,    AND   IN    OTHER   SPECI- 
FIED   INDUSTRIES.     NEW  YORK   CITY, 
1 9OO  a 


WOMEN  EMPLOYED, 

BY  AGES 

Industry 

10  years 
and  un- 

16 years 
and  un- 

25 years 
and 
over 

All 
women 

der  16 

der  25 

years 

years 

All  manufacturing  industries 

Number     .... 

12,647 

69,967 

49,864 

132,478 

Per  cent     . 

9 

53 

38 

too 

Artificial  flower  making 

• 

Number     . 

233 

1,053 

384 

1,670 

Per  cent     . 

14 

63 

23 

100 

Dressmaking 

Number     . 

1,836 

15,409 

20,263 

37.5o8 

Per  cent     . 

5 

41 

54 

100 

Millinery 

Number     . 

761 

4.340 

2,546 

7.647 

Per  cent     . 

10 

57 

33 

100 

Paper  box  making 

Number     . 

544 

1,819 

730 

3.093 

Per  cent     . 

'7 

59 

24 

too 

a  Twelfth  United  States  Census, 
tions,  p.  640. 


1900.    Special  Reports,  Occupa- 


Dressmaking  was  chosen  for  comparison  be- 
cause it  employs  more  women  than  any  other  trade 
in  New  York,  millinery  because  it  is  the  trade  on 
which  artificial  flower  shops  depend,  and  paper 
box  making  because  a  number  of  factories  are  lo- 
cated in  the  same  district  as  are  the  artificial  flower 

25 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

establishments.     The  figures  are  also  given  for  all 
manufacturing  pursuits  grouped  together.     Com- 


Artificial  n 

flower  Dr5?s- 

making  maklnS 


Milli- 
nery 


100 


25  years  and  over 


Yyyffiy\     '6  years  and  under  25  years 
't  Vi  ''J    Under  »6  years 

Chart  I. — Age  Distribution  of  Women  Employed  in  Artificial 
Flower  Making,  in  Other  Specified  Manufacturing  In- 
dustries, and  in  all  Manufacturing  Industries,  New  York 
City,  1900 

pared  with  this  latter  comprehensive  group  of  all 
trades,  a  larger  proportion  of  children  under  six- 
teen is  found  in  the  artificial  flower  shops, — 14  per 

26 


WORKERS    IN   THE    SHOPS 

cent  as  compared  with  9  per  cent.  The  group 
between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  twenty-five  is  also 
larger  in  the  flower  trade, — 63  per  cent  as  com- 
pared with  53  per  cent.  Of  all  women  in  manu- 
facturing nearly  50,000,  or  38  per  cent  of  the  total 
employed,  have  passed  their  twenty-fifth  birthday, 
compared  with  23  per  cent  who  continue  in  flower 
shops  until  they  reach  that  age.  Dressmaking 
offers  a  contrast  even  more  striking,  with  only  5 
per  cent  of  its  women  employes  under  sixteen, 
and  54  per  cent  twenty-five  or  over.  In  milli- 
nery 10  per  cent  are  under  sixteen,  57  per  cent 
between  sixteen  and  twenty-five,  and  33  per  cent 
twenty-five  or  over.  The  paper  box  trade  em- 
ploys about  the  same  proportion  under  the  age 
of  twenty-five  as  does  the  flower  trade,  but  the 
percentage  under  sixteen  is  larger. 

It  is  evident  that  flower  making  ranks  with  in- 
dustries employing  a  large  proportion  of  young 
girls.  "Nearly  all  the  girls  round  here  work  on 
flowers,  especially  the  little  girls/'  said  one  young 
flower  maker.  Several  employers  complained  of 
this  condition,  explaining  that  it  was  due  to  the 
fact  that  as  girls  grow  older  they  leave  the  trade 
for  other  occupations.  Workers,  asked  for  the 
reason,  said  that  it  was  because  of  low  wages, 
short  seasons,  and  "no  chance  to  advance."  What- 
ever the  explanation  may  be,  a  preponderance  of 
young  workers  in  an  industry  is  a  fact  of  great  im- 
portance in  its  relation  to  wages,  seasons,  and 
hours  of  labor,  and  in  its  bearing  on  the  develop- 

27 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

ment  of  skill.  The  absence  of  older  workers  is 
usually  a  sign  that  the  reward  of  experience  is  too 
small,  and  that  the  occupation  is  not  so  organized 
as  to  encourage  a  high  grade  of  efficiency. 

The  second  point  made  by  employers,  that  the 
more  recently  arrived  foreigners  were  taking  the 
place  of  workers  formerly  employed  in  the  trade, 
was  corroborated  by  our  data.  In  a  trade  in  which 
the  personnel  of  the  force  changes  so  frequently 
as  it  does  in  flower  shops,  changes  in  nationalities 
represented  are  to  be  expected.  On  this  point 
the  data  gathered  by  the  census  of  1900  and  those 
gathered  by  our  investigators  in  19 10  present 
marked  differences,  especially  in  regard  to  the 
birthplaces  of  the  parents  of  flower  makers.  Of 
174  workers  interviewed  by  us,  88,  or  about  half, 
were  born  in  the  United  States.  These  figures 
agree  closely  with  the  census  figures  of  1900,  in 
which  54  per  cent  of  the  flower  and  feather  makers 
were  recorded  as  "native  born  white/'  Birth- 
places of  the  foreign  born  workers  are  not  speci- 
fied in  the  census.  Our  investigation  shows  that 
49,  over  a  fourth,  were  born  in  Italy;  20,  or  a  ninth, 
in  Russia;  12,  or  a  fifteenth,  in  Austria,  Hungary, 
or  Bohemia.*  Gauged  by  parentage,  however,  a 
much  larger  proportion  represent  foreign  coun- 
tries. This  fact,  and  the  differences  between  cen- 
sus figures  in  1900  and  our  data  of  1910-11,  ap- 
pear in  Table  3. 

*  Three  were  born  respectively  in  England,  Germany,  Roumania. 
Of  two  the  birthplace  was  not  stated. 

28 


WORKERS   IN   THE   SHOPS 


TABLE  3. — NATIVITY  OF  PARENTS  OF  WOMEN 

EMPLOYED  IN  ARTIFICIAL  FLOWER 

MAKING,  NEW  YORK  CITY 


DATA  OF  PRESENT 

INVESTIGATION 

CENSUS  FIGURES 

Women  with  fathers 

Women  with  parents 

Country  of  bi 

rth            born  as  specified  * 

born  as  specified  b 

Number 

Per  cent 

Number 

Per  cent 

United  States 

3 

2 

117 

7 

Italy 

124 

72 

301 

18 

Russia,  Poland 

24 

14 

379 

23 

Austria,  Hungary 

,  Bo- 

hernia 

18 

10 

109 

6 

Germany 

2 

1 

433 

26 

Ireland  . 

195 

12 

Other  countries 

2 

1 

137 

8 

Total  . 

173 

100 

1,671 

100 

»Of  the  174  women  interviewed,  one  did  not  supply  information 
as  to  nativity  of  father. 

b  Both  parents  born  as  specified,  or  one  as  specified  and  the  other 
born  in  the  United  States.  Mixed  foreign  parentage  is  included  under 
"Other  countries."  United  States  Census,  1900.   Occupations,  p. 640. 

The  characteristic  of  the  census  figures  is  the 
comparatively  even  representation  of  persons  from 
Italy,  Russia,  and  Germany,  and  a  somewhat 
smaller  number  from  Ireland,  while  our  data  show 
a  much  larger  proportion  of  Italians,  72  per  cent, 
and  no  Irish.  Of  course,  the  number  included  in 
our  interviews  is  small  compared  with  the  census 
totals,  but  the  variety  of  sources  of  our  names, — 
settlements,  girls'  clubs,  public  evening  schools 
throughout  Manhattan,  and  fellow-workers  in  the 
trade, — and  the  facts  gathered  through  the  thor- 

29 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 

ough  canvass  of  employers  indicate  that  the  groups 
are  typical.  Furthermore,  the  census  of  1 9 1  o  shows 
that  the  Italian  population  of  New  York  more 
than  doubled  between  1900  and  19 10,  increasing  in 
the  ten  years  from  145,429  to  340,524.*  This  fact 
further  supports  the  explanation  of  the  difference 
between  our  figures  and  those  of  1900;  namely,  that 
conditions  changed  greatly  in  the  trade  in  that 
decade.  It  lends  support  to  the  assertion  of  em- 
ployers and  workers  that  the  Italians  are  "driving 
out"  other  nationalities  from  the  flower  shops. 

A  number  of  employers  complained  that  this 
change  in  the  nationality  of  workers  cheapens 
the  work  in  the  shops,  and  results  in  the  spread  of 
the  home-work  system.  One  man  who  manufac- 
tured flowers  for  decoration,  but  who  was  well 
informed  about  conditions  in  the  millinery  branch 
of  the  industry,  said,  "There  used  to  be  a  good 
many  American  girls  employed  in  the  trade.  Then 
there  was  no  home  work.  The  Italians  began  the 
home  work  fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago.  They 
have  cheapened  the  whole  trade.  They  are  will- 
ing to  work  at  home  for  anything  because  they 
have  their  children  to  help.  A  manufacturer  who 
has  his  work  done  in  the  shop  cannot  compete 
with  employers  who  give  it  out/' 

This  reputation  of  Italian  women  for  under- 
bidding is  not  confined  to  the  flower  trade.f     In 

♦United  States  Bureau  of  the  Census,  Special  Notice  for  Press 
Associations,  correspondents,  etc.  1912.  Nationality  of  the  foreign 
born  white  population  of  New  York. 

t  For  further  discussion  of  the  subject,  see  pp.  67-70. 

30 


WORKERS   IN   THE   SHOPS 

other  industries  also  they  are  charged,  as  are  Ital- 
ian men,  with  working  for  wages  below  the  pre- 
vailing standard.  Because  of  this  charge,  data 
about  the  distribution  of  Italian  women  in  other 
occupations  throw  light  on  the  artificial  flower 
trade. 

TABLE   4. — WOMEN   WAGE-EARNERS    BY   NATIVITY 

OF    PARENTS    AND   GENERAL  OCCUPATIONS. 

NEW  YORK  CITY,   I900a 


WOMEN    WITH    PARENTS    BORN    IN  b 

All 

coun- 
tries 

United 
States 

Ireland 

Ger- 
many 

Russia 

and 
Poland 

Italy 

Number  considered0 

366,997 

7I.I49 

112,421 

72,554 

24,238 

12,127 

Per  cent  occupied  in 
Professional  service 
Domestic  and  per- 
sonal service 
Trade    and    trans- 
portation 
Manufacturing  and 
mechanical    pur- 
suits    . 

6.1 
40.0 
17.8 

36.1 

13-3 
37-7 
23.4 

25.6 

3-9 
52.0 
16.3 

27.8 

4.2 
373 
18.7 

39.8 

1-5 
15.2 
14.3 

69.0 

1 .2 
13.2 
8.1 

77-5 

Total 

100. 0 

100. 0 

100. 0 

100. 0 

100. 0 

100. 0 

a  Twelfth  United  States  Census,  1900.  Special  Reports,  Occupa- 
tions, p.  638. 

b  Women  having  one  parent  born  in  the  United  States  and  one  born 
abroad  are  classified  as  of  foreign  parentage  according  to  the  nativity 
of  the  foreign  born  parent. 

"The  totals  given  do  not  include  women  engaged  in  agricultural 
pursuits  of  whom  440  were  reported  in  New  York  City. 

While  the  figures  given  in  Table  4  are  those 
of  1900,  and  cannot  therefore  be  accepted   un- 

31 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

hesitatingly  as  indicative  of  present  conditions, 
observation  of  all  the  women  wage-earners  in  the 
Italian  families  visited  in  the  course  of  this  study 
confirms  the  main  conclusions  of  the  census  report 
regarding  the  types  of  employment  selected  by 
the  largest  groups  of  Italian  women.  A  compari- 
son of  their  choice  of  occupation  with  that  of  the 
four  nationalities  most  largely  represented  among 
wage-earning  women  in  New  York  brings  to  light 
some  significant  facts  about  the  position  of  Italian 
girls  in  industry.  The  four  predominant  groups 
of  women  wage-earners  in  New  York  in  order  of 
numerical  importance  are,  first,  those  of  Irish  par- 
entage; second,  German;  third,  native  born;  and 
fourth,  Russian.*     Italians  are  seventh  in  the  list. 

,Of  the  women  wage-earners  of  Italian  parentage, 
a  very  large  majority  are  in  manufacturing  in- 
dustries, while  only  a  small  group  are  employed  in 
domestic  and  personal  service,  and  a  still  smaller 
proportion  earn  their  living  in  the  group  of  oc- 
cupations known  as  trade  and  transportation, 
including  saleswork,  stenography,  typewriting, 
bookkeeping,  and  similar  office  work.  This  con- 
centration in  one  group  of  wage-earning  pursuits  is 
more  marked  for  Italian  girls  than  for  those  of  any 
other  nationality. 

Of  all  wage-earning  girls  of  Italian  parentage  78 
per  cent  are  in  factories,  as  compared  with  69  per 
cent  of  the  Russians,  40  per  cent  of  the  Germans, 

♦Twelfth  United  States  Census,  1900.  Special  Reports,  Occupa- 
tions, p.  639. 

32 


WORKERS    IN    THE    SHOPS 

28  per  cent  of  the  Irish,  and  26  per  cent  of  the  na- 
tive born.  Equally  marked  is  the  concentration  of 
Italian  girls  in  a  few  trades  in  the  group  of  manu- 
facturing pursuits.  Thus  52  per  cent  of  I  talian  girls 
in  all  occupations  are  employed  as  tailors,  dress- 
makers, or  seamstresses,  compared  with  14  per 
cent  of  the  Irish,  21  per  cent  of  the  German,  and 
19  per  cent  of  all  nationalities.  In  the  16  trades 
employing  1,000  or  more  women  in  New  York, 
Italians  lead  in  numbers  employed  in  two, — in 
tailoring  and  in  candy  making.  The  other  groups 
in  which  they  are  found  in  large  numbers  are  dress- 
making, sewing,  tobacco  and  cigar  manufacture, 
and  artificial  flower  making.* 

These  data  indicate  that  the  Italian  girl's  choice 
of  work  is  limited.  Whatever  the  cause,  whether 
jt  be  ignorance  of  the  labor  market,  prejudice 
of  the  Italian  girls  themselves  against  other  occupa- 
tions or  of  employers  against  them  as  workers,  this 
tendency  to  congregate  in  the  trades  commonly 
considered  sweated  is  a  fact  of  great  importance  to 

*  Card  records  of  97  club  members  in  a  social  settlement,  Richmond 
Hill  House,  located  in  the  center  of  an  Italian  district,  showed,  June, 
191 1,  a  fairly  even  distribution  of  girls  employed  in  artificial  flower 
and  feather  making  (21),  dressmaking  and  hand  sewing  (21),  em- 
broidery (15),  candy  making  (11),  and  machine  sewing  (8).  The 
other  occupations  represented  were  millinery;  machine  sewing  on 
vests,  corset  covers,  and  bathrobes;  paper  box  making;  ribbon  manu- 
facture; umbrella  making;  and  sample  mounting.  A  mutual  benefit 
association,  organized  in  connection  with  the  same  settlement,  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  medical  assistance  at  small  cost  for  its  mem- 
bers and  for  the  discussion  of  industrial  problems,  had  17  members 
employed  in  the  artificial  flower  and  feather  trade,  34  in  hand  sewing 
trades,  eight  in  machine  sewing,  and  scattered  members  at  work  in 
candy  factories,  box  factories,  bookbinding,  saleswork,  and  a  few 
minor  occupations. 

33 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

the  welfare  not  only  of  I  talians  but  of  other  wage- 
earning  women  in  New  York. 

The  significance  of  these  tentative  statements 
in  relation  to  the  flower  trade  is  obvious.  As  home 
workers  and  as  shop  workers,  Italian  girls  are  an 
important  factor  in  determining  the  conditions  of 
flower  manufacture.  If  their  choice  of  other  oc- 
cupations be  limited,  we  are  likely  to  see  an  in- 
creasing competition  on  their  part  in  the  flower 
shops,  with  an  extension  of  the  home-work  system 
and  its  evil  influences,  a  further  curtailing  of  the 
seasons  in  consequence  of  this  extension,  and  a 
probable  reduction  in  wages  such  as  usually  follows 
keen  competition  for  employment.  Moreover,  the 
characteristic  attitude  of  Italian  girls  toward  their 
work  is  an  important  factor  to  be  considered  in  its 
effect  on  conditions  in  industries  in  which  their 
numbers  are  increasing  as  they  are  in  flower  shops. 

Many  exceptions  must  be  made  to  any  charac- 
terization of  national  traits.  Nevertheless,  the 
difference  is  marked  between  the  attitude  of  the 
Italian  flower  maker  toward  her  work  and  that  of 
her  fellow  worker,  a  Jewish  girl  from  Russia  or 
Austria  or  Germany.  Briefly  stated,  it  may  be 
said  that  when  the  Italian  girl  exhibits  an  interest 
in  her  trade  it  is  an  interest  in  craftsmanship  or  in 
her  own  wages  rather  than  in  general  trade  condi- 
tions. The  Jewish  girl,  on  the  contrary,  has  a  dis- 
tinct sense  of  her  social  responsibility  and  often 
displays  an  eager  zest  for  discussion  of  labor  prob- 
lems.   These  traits  naturally  make  a  marked  im- 

34 


A  Corner  of  a  Large   Broadway  Factory 


Branching  Roses 


WORKERS    IN   THE    SHOPS 

pression  on  an  investigator.  The  Italian  girl  will 
receive  her  visitor  with  courteous  hospitality  and 
will  proudly  show  her  some  artificial  flowers  which 
she  has  made,  often  insisting  on  presenting  one  or 
two  as  a  gift.  She  will  answer  all  questions  gra- 
ciously but  briefly,  considering  work  in  the  flower 
trade  as  only  one  of  many  interesting  topics  of  con- 
versation. It  is  vital  to  her  not  as  a  general  indus- 
trial problem  but  as  a  means  of  supplying  money 
for  the  needs  of  her  family,  to  whose  welfare  she  is 
traditionally  inclined  to  subordinate  her  individual 
desires.  The  Jewish  girl,  on  the  other  hand,  will 
probably  plunge  at  once  into  a  discussion  of  her 
trade,  its  advantages  and  disadvantages,  wages, 
hours  of  work,  and  instances  of  shabby  treatment 
in  the  shops,  or  of  unsanitary  conditions  in  the 
workrooms.  Her  attitude  is  likely  to  be  that  of  an 
agitator.  Nevertheless,  she  has  the  foundation  of 
that  admirable  trait,  "public  spirit,"  and  a  sense 
of  relationships  to  a  community  larger  than  the 
family  or  the  personal  group  of  which  she  happens 
to  be  a  member.  It  follows  that  the  Italian  girl 
is  more  willing  than  the  Jewish  girl  to  accept  con- 
ditions as  she  finds  them.  The  owner  of  a  large 
flower  factory  says  that  he  prefers  to  employ  Ital- 
ians because  they  "are  more  tractable." 

These  differences  in  point  of  view  prevent  a 
sense  of  fellowship  among  them:  their  common 
interests  as  workers  in  the  same  occupation  have 
never  been  realized  or  expressed  in  any  representa- 
tive group  organization   in   the  artificial  flower 

35 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

trade.  The  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Jewish 
girls  to  organize  a  trade  union  has  failed  so 
signally  that  not  until  several  months  after  the  in- 
vestigation began  did  we  find  any  girls  who  had 
ever  heard  of  such  an  effort.  Finally  two  were 
found  who  had  been  members.  They  were  inter- 
viewed at  different  times  and  the  visitor  thus 
records  their  reports  of  the  organization : 

I.  The  Flower  Makers'  Union  was  organized  about  1907, 
but  broke  up  in  six  months  or  so.  There  were  about  200 
members  including  girls  and  men  cutters,  colorers,  etc.  They 
met  every  Friday  evening  in  a  hall  on  2nd  Street  near  Avenue 
A.  The  dues  were  5  cents  a  week.  The  girl  interviewed  said 
it  was  hard  to  persuade  girls  to  join.  They  were  not  inter- 
ested. One  girl  said,  "I'm  going  to  get  married  soon,"  and 
another,  "I  got  a  fellow.  Vy  should  I  join?"  When  asked 
the  aims  of  the  union,  the  girl  informant  said,  "We  started 
to  kick  about  wages.  But  when  I  asked  my  boss  for  a 
raise,  he  said,  'For  vy  should  I  gif  you  a  raise?  Didn't  I 
teach  you  the  trade?'"  However,  even  this  girl  is  not  inter- 
ested in  starting  the  union  again,  as  she  has  a  fairly  good  posi- 
tion with  steady  work  all  year,  and  does  not  now  feel  a  per- 
sonal need  for  its  support. 

II.  The  second  girl  said  that  the  union  was  started  chiefly 
by  girls  in  the  Broadway  flower  factory  in  which  she  happened 
to  be  employed.  She  was  the  secretary.  Most  of  the  mem- 
bers were  Jewish  girls,  who  had  just  come  from  Europe  and 
could  not  speak  English,  and  the  discussions  were  carried  on 
and  the  minutes  kept  in  Yiddish.  They  met  in  a  hall  on 
2nd  Street.  They  had  several  mass  meetings,  but  these  were 
very  poorly  attended,  with  one  exception,  when  several  fore- 
women came,  and  there  were  English  and  Italian  speakers. 

36 


WORKERS    IN    THE    SHOPS 

In  1909  or  1910  an  attempt  was  made  to  unite  the  milliners, 
wire  makers,  and  flower  makers  into  one  union  so  that  they 
could  control  the  trade,  but  it  was  not  successful.  Since  then 
the  Flower  Makers'  Union  has  been  replaced  by  the  Educa- 
tional League  of  Flower  Makers,  which  meets  every  Saturday 
evening.  Yiddish  only  is  spoken  at  its  meetings.  It  was 
thought  that  more  girls  would  join,  if  it  were  not  called  a 
union,  but  this  girl  left,  saying  that  she  would  not  return 
unless  they  frankly  called  themselves  a  union. 

The  old  union  had  saved  up  $100  in  its  treasury,  which  in 
19 10  they  turned  over  to  help  the  shirtwaist  strikers.  After 
the  success  of  that  strike  in  winning  members  for  the  shirt- 
waist union,  some  of  the  flower  makers  thought  of  organ- 
izing their  union  again.  But  many  girls,  "especially  the 
Americans,"  are  not  interested  in  joining,  "because  they  don't 
expect  to  stay  in  the  trade.  They  think  only  of  themselves," 
said  this  girl.  "Perhaps  some  day  they  will  have  daughters 
working  at  this  same  trade,  and  they  could  help  them  if  they 
would  form  a  union."  The  Italian  girls,  she  says,  have  no 
interest  in  unions.  This  Russian  Jewish  girl's  comment  was, 
"If  they  were  more  civilized,  they  wouldn't  take  such  low 
pay.     But  they  go  without  hats  and  gloves  and  umbrellas." 

The  attitude  of  these  young  girls  of  different 
races  and  different  points  of  view  toward  their 
trade  is  too  often  a  casual  one.  u  I  don't  like  the 
trade,"  said  one  girl.  "  I  happened  to  learn  it  be- 
cause one  day  I  saw  a  sign  on  a  door  and  I  went 
upstairs  to  the  shop.  I  got  into  it  and  I  don 't  seem 
to  be  able  to  get  out  of  it."  Two  sisters  expressed 
the  same  lack  of  interest,  without  having  the  initi- 
ative to  enable  them  to  take  the  visitor's  sugges- 
tion to  find  another  occupation.     "We  might  only 

37 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

get  into  more  trouble/'  said  they.  Julia,  an  Ital- 
ian, liked  it  better,  but  her  reason  for  choosing  it 
had  been  the  casual  one  that  "everybody  else  I 
knew  worked  in  it.  It  is  the  Italians'  trade; 
and  then  I  thought  that  when  I  get  married  I  can 
still  keep  it  up  at  home."  In  contrast  to  this  plan 
for  the  future  was  that  of  Gertie,  a  quiet-voiced, 
gentle  Russian  girl,  whose  younger  sister  said  of 
her,  "She'd  like  to  leave  the  trade  now,  but  she 
thinks  that  perhaps  soon  somebody  will  marry  her 
and  she  won't  have  to  work  any  more." 

It  is  noteworthy  that  workers  of  real  ability,  not 
so  much  from  lack  of  interest  as  from  lack  of  con- 
fidence, sometimes  shun  promotion  to  positions  of 
greater  responsibility.  One  worker  refused  an 
offer  to  be  forewoman  in  a  shop  where  a  number  of 
German  girls  who  could  speak  no  English  were 
employed.  "  I  was  afraid  that  I  wouldn't  be  able 
to  get  along,"  was  her  explanation.  Another, 
Theresa,  an  Italian  girl,  had  reached  the  position 
of  forewoman  with  full  responsibility  for  the  shop 
employes  and  the  home  workers.  But  when  she 
found  that  she  could  get  the  same  wages  in  another 
shop  without  being  in  charge,  she  preferred  the  less 
responsible  position. 

On  the  other  hand,  many  workers  are  ambitious 
to  advance  to  higher  ranks  and  take  great  pride  in 
their  work.  "Do  I  like  the  trade?"  said  one.  "  I 
don't  like  it, — I  love  it."  Others  emphasized  its 
social  opportunities.  "A  nice  class  of  girls  go  into 
it, — nice  girls  to  pal  with."    This  idea  was  voiced 

38 


WORKERS   IN   THE    SHOPS 

again  by  a  woman  who  had  worked  twenty-seven 
years  in  flower  shops.  "There  is  always  some 
news  to  talk  about  among  the  girls  in  the  shop," 
she  said;  and  added,  "It  is  interesting  work  and 
does  not  tire  one." 

These  workers  who  "love  the  trade"  prove  its 
possibilities  for  attractiveness,  but  too  many  others 
have  the  drifters'  attitude  of  indifference  or  aver- 
sion. They  are  in  it  because  they  happened  to  see 
a  sign  on  a  factory  door  when  they  were  out  look- 
ing for  work.  When  the  season  in  the  trade  is  over 
they  must  find  other  employment,  and  they  may 
never  return  to  flower  making.  If  under  these 
conditions  they  lack  interest  and  pride  in  their 
work  it  is  not  the  workers  but  the  industry  which 
must  be  held  primarily  responsible.  Conditions  in 
the  trade  are  opposed  to  the  development  of  that 
spirit  of  craftsmanship  which  springs  from  love  of 
the  work  and  joy  in  doing  it,  and  is  fostered  by 
rewards  ahead  for  experience  and  skill,,  the  influ- 
ence of  older  workers  in  the  workroom,  steady  em- 
ployment, and  adequate  payment  for  work  well 
done.  It  is  upon  such  conditions  that  the  ulti- 
mate success  of  the  artificial  flower  industry  will 
depend.  Many  employers  complain  of  inefficiency 
in  their  workrooms.  Few  have  tried  to  grapple 
with  the  situation  by  a  fundamental  change  in  the 
conditions  which  produce  inefficiency  and  afford 
no  encouragement  to  craftsmanship. 


39 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  SEASONS  AND   UNEMPLOYMENT 

THE  number  of  workers  employed  in  the 
artificial  flower  trade  is  not  fixed  but  varies 
each  month  of  the  year.  This  changing 
ratio  between  the  demand  and  the  supply  of  labor 
influences  profoundly  all  other  important  condi- 
tions in  the  trade, — disorganizes  workrooms, 
lengthens  the  hours  of  work  in  one  season  and  re- 
duces earnings  in  another,  attracts  casual  workers, 
interferes  with  the  training  of  learners,  and  causes 
girls  to  drift  from  trade  to  trade.  Yet  important 
as  it  is  to  have  accurate  information  as  a  first  step 
in  solving  in  any  trade  this  immense  problem  of 
irregular  employment,  facts  about  it  are  not  easily 
secured.  The  uncertainty  which  menaces  the 
workers,  creates  difficulties  for  the  investigator. 

That  flower  makers  face  the  problem  of  the 
seasons  is  shown  first  of  all  by  the  fluctuations  in 
the  numbers  employed  during  the  course  of  a  year. 
Of  114  firms  investigated,  10 1  reported  the  com- 
parative numbers  employed  in  their  workrooms 
in  busy  and  dull  months.  The  maximum  force  of 
women  in  these  shops  was  4,470.  In  slack  season 
only  873  of  these  4,470  workers  were  still  to  be 
found  in  the  workrooms,  and  of  that  number  385 

40 


THE    SEASONS   AND    UNEMPLOYMENT 

were  not  flower  makers  only  but  worked  on  feath- 
ers also,  according  to  the  orders  received.  It  was 
found  that  46  firms  employed  no  flower  makers  in 
their  slack  seasons,  1 5  employed  less  than  five,  and 
13  employed  between  five  and  10.  The  length  of 
the  seasons  as  reported  by  113  of  the  114  em- 
ployers is  shown  in  Table  5. 

TABLE    5. — LENGTH    OF    BUSY    SEASON   OF   YEAR   IN 
ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   SHOPS a 


Length  of  busy  season 

Shops  in  which  length  of  busy 
season  was  as  specified 

3  months 

4  months 

5  months 

6  months 

7  months 

8  months 

9  months 

10  months 

"  Busy  all  the  year"    .... 
Seasons  too  irregular  to  be  classified  . 

3 

10 
10 

'3 

18 

30 
17 
4 

5 
3 

Total 

113 

a  Of  the  1 14  firms  investigated,  one  did  not  supply  information. 

Only  five  shops  were  reported  as  "busy  all 
year/'  17  reported  a  nine-month  season,  and  four 
said  that  they  were  busy  ten  months.  Thus  only 
26,  or  almost  one-fourth  (23  per  cent)  of  the  num- 
ber investigated,  had  a  season  longer  than  eight 
months,  while  among  the  remainder  the  chief 
characteristic  was  variety  in  the  length  of  the  busy 
period  ranging  from  three  months  to  eight.    Even 

41 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 

during  those  months,  the  maximum  force  may  be 
employed  for  a  short  time  only,  for  within  that  pe- 
riod business  has  its  ups  and  downs.  "  It  is  a  trade 
that  depends  on  the  will  and  fashion  of  women. 
You  never  can  tell  what  kind  of  a  season  you  are 
likely  to  have/'  said  one  employer.  "It's  busy, 
busy,  busy,"  said  a  flower  maker,  "and  then  the 
work  stops  like  that/'  slapping  her  hand  on  the 
table.  Moreover,  between  the  busy  months  and 
the  slack  months  there  is  a  fringe  of  uncertain 
days,  so  that  it  is  desirable  to  know  also  the  length 
of  the  slack  season.  This  cannot  safely  be  de- 
termined merely  by  subtracting  the  number  of 
prosperous  months  from  twelve.  A  statement  of 
the  slack  months  in  the  1 1 3  flower  shops  where  em- 
ployers reported  the  facts  is  given  in  Table  6. 

TABLE   6. — LENGTH  OF  SLACK   SEASON   OF  YEAR  IN 
ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   SHOPS  a 


Length  of  slack  season 

Shops  in  which  length  of  slack 
season  was  as  specified 

1  month 

2  months 

3  months 

4  months 

5  months 

6  months 

7  months 

8  months 

No  slack  time 

Seasons  too  irregular  to  be  classified  . 

3 
'3 
32 
31 
14 

8 

3 

1 

5 
3 

Total 

"3 

a  Of  1 14  firms  investigated,  one  did  not  supply  information. 
42 


THE    SEASONS   AND   UNEMPLOYMENT 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  in  more  than  half  the 
shops  the  workers  must  expect  a  dull  period  of 
three  or  four  months  every  year.  During  that 
time,  as  is  shown  by  the  figures  indicating  fluctua- 
tions in  numbers  employed,  about  one  girl  in  every 
group  of  five  will  have  work.  The  remaining  four 
must  look  for  other  employment  or  else  be  idle. 
This  uncertainty  seems  to  be  especially  marked  in 
the  fall  season.  Sometimes  no  flowers  are  worn 
on  fashionable  winter  hats,  and  then  the  season 
from  September  to  December  disappears  from  the 
flower  maker's  calendar.  "  If  they  wear  flowers  in 
the  fall  we  are  busy  all  the  time,"  said  one  em- 
ployer; "if  not,  then  only  from  January  to  June." 
This  frequent  change  in  styles  makes  stock  work 
impossible,  consequently  flowers  are  made  only  fori 
immediate  sale  or  after  orders  have  been  given  for 
them.  Many  employers  consider  this  the  chief 
reason  for  the  short  seasons.  "It's  like  specula- 
tion," said  the  owner  of  a  small  shop;  "if  you  only 
could  find  out  what  the  style  is  going  to  be,  you'd 
get  rich,  but  you  cannot  make  stock  on  anything 
but  black  flowers."  Since  the  trade  is  largely  a 
branch  of  the  millinery  industry,  the  bulk  of  the 
orders  depends  upon  the  preparation  of  spring  hats. 
Beginning,  therefore,  about  eight  months  before 
Easter,  and  straggling  along  in  scattered  groups 
from  July  to  December,  the  shops  gradually  "take 
on  hands"  necessary  to  fill  the  equally  straggling 
orders. 

Partjime  is  another  phase  of  the  problem.  Firms 
43 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

may  report  that  they  keep  their  employes  "all 
year  round,"  and  yet  the  workers  may  suffer  the 
disadvantages  of  irregularity  by  a  reduction  in  pay 
in  dull  weeks.  For  instance,  a  rose  maker  who 
earned  $9.00  a  week  in  the  busy  season  was  em- 
ployed through  the  dull  summer  months,  but  she 
worked  only  three  days  a  week  with  half  pay,  ex- 
cept for  an  occasional  week  when  more  orders  were 
received.  Even  then  she  was  paid  $2.00  less  than 
in  the  winter  for  a  full  week's  work,  a  premium  to 
the  firm  for  not  "  laying  her  off."  Such  cuts  in  pay 
may  apply  to  the  rates  paid  to  girls  whose  earnings 
are  determined  by  the  number  of  flowers  made,  as 
well  as  to  those  whose  wages  are  fixed  by  the  week. 
One  employer  pointed  to  a  "standard"  rose  which 
can  be  made  in  slack  season  with  the  certainty  that 
it  will  be  marketable  in  busy  months.  He  cuts 
the  rate  for  making  it  from  35  cents  a  dozen  in 
busy  season  to  30  cents  in  slack  season.  "That's 
to  pay  me  interest  on  my  money,"  he  explained. 
He  does  not  cut  the  selling  price  of  the  flower. 
The  extra  profit  is  his. 

The  time  of  the  ending  of  the  season  is  more 
uniform  than  the  time  of  beginning.  In  nearly 
three-fourths  of  the  shops  it  ends  in  April  or  May, 
the  exact  date  depending  upon  the  place  of  Easter 
in  the  calendar.  The  dates  when  the  season  be- 
gan and  ended  in  the  shops  investigated  are  given 
in  Tables  7  and  8. 

The  facts  given  here  show  the  fluctuations  of  the 
trade.     The  effect  of  these  fluctuations  on  the 

44 


THE    SEASONS    AND    UNEMPLOYMENT 

workers  is  read  in  such  signs  as  the  short  length  of 
time  they  hold  their  positions  and  their  tendency 
to  drift  from  shop  to  shop,  their  reasons  for  leaving, 

TABLE  7. — MONTH   OF   BEGINNING  OF   BUSY  SEASON 
IN    ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   SHOPSa 


Month  of  beginning  of  busy  season 

Shops  in  which  busy  season 
began  in  month  specified 

July 

August 

September 

October 

November     .       .       . 

December 

January         

"  Busy  all  the  year"    .... 
Seasons  too  irregular  to  be  classified  . 

4 
18 

31 
15 

5 
19 

5 
5 

Total 

113 

a  Of  1 14  firms  investigated,  one  did  not  supply  information. 


TABLE     8. — MONTH    OF    ENDING    OF    BUSY    SEASON 
IN   ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   SHOPSa 


Month  of  ending  of  busy  season 

Shops  in  which  busy  season 
ended  in  month  specified 

March 

April 

May 

June 

July 

"Busy  all  the  year"    .... 
Seasons  too  irregular  to  be  classified  . 

3 
24 
58 
17 

1 

5 
5 

Total 

»I3 

a  Of  114  firms  investigated,  one  did  not  supply  information. 
45 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

their  employment  in  other  occupations  during  dull 
seasons,  and  the  amount  of  time  lost  during  the 
twelve  months  of  the  year.  Choosing  as  typical 
the  last  positions  held  by  the  workers  interviewed, 
the  brief  duration  of  "jobs"  in  the  flower  trade  is 
shown  in  Table  9. 


TABLE    9. — LENGTH    OF    TIME     FOR    WHICH    WOMEN 

WERE     EMPLOYED     IN     LATEST     POSITIONS     IN 

ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER  TRADEa 


WOMEN       EMPLOYED    SPECIFIED 

LENGTH  OF  TIME  IN 

Length  of  time  employed 

Last  posi- 
tion left 

Present  position,  if 

worker  was  still  in 

her  first  position 

in  the  trade 

Less  than  i  month  .... 
1  month  and  less  than  3  months  . 
3  months  and  less  than  6  months. 
6  months  and  less  than  9  months. 
9  months  and  less  than  12  months. 

15 
20 
16 

14 
8 

3 
4 

5 
6 

Less  than  1  year      .... 

1  year  and  less  than  2  years 

2  years  and  less  than  3  years 

3  years  and  less  than  5  years 

5  years  and  less  than  10  years  . 
10  years  and  less  than  21  years  . 

73 

22 
5 

10 
7 

1 

19 
6 

8 

10 

6 

2 

Total 

118 

61 

a  Of  the  174  women  interviewed,  five  did  not  supply  information 
on  this  point. 

In  tabulating  the  duration  of  the  last  position 
held,  those  who  were  still  in  their  first  positions 
were  separated  from  the  others,  since  their  em- 
ployment had  not  terminated  and  therefore  its 

46 


I  •••. 


A  Cutter  with  Heavy  Hammer 


Coloring  the  Petals 


THE    SEASONS   AND   UNEMPLOYMENT 

length  could  not  be  stated.  This  separate  group 
numbered  51,  and  of  these  19  had  been  flower 
makers  less  than  one  year.  In  one  case,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  position  had  already  been  held 
twenty-one  years.  Of  the  1 18  whose  last  position 
in  the  trade  could  be  definitely  measured,  73  had 
held  their  last  jobs  less  than  one  year, — an  indica- 
tion that  frequent  change  in  employment  is  typical 
of  the  experiences  of  a  large  majority. 

A  count  of  the  number  of  shops  in  which  these 
flower  makers  had  worked  in  the  twelve  months 
preceding  the  interview  showed  that  only  two  in 
every  five  reported  only  one  place  of  employment, 
while  nearly  an  equal  proportion  had  worked  in 
two  or  three  different  establishments,  and  the  re- 
mainder had  changed  from  one  workplace  to  an- 
other four  or  five  times.  An  investigator's  com- 
ment on  the  record  of  one  flower  maker  shows  how 
discouraging  these  frequent  changes  are  for  the 
workers.  "She  wishes  she  could  find  some  place 
that  would  last  all  year  round.  She  says  that  as 
soon  as  she  gets  started  in  any  work  and  begins  to 
make  money,  it  gets  slack  and  she  must  search  for 
something  else." 

It  may  be  asked  why  it  should  be  necessary  to 
change  from  one  shop  to  another  in  the  same  trade, 
since  similar  seasonal  conditions  are  commonly 
supposed  to  prevail  in  all  establishments  producing 
the  same  goods.  The  facts  already  stated,  how- 
ever, show  how  widely  the  seasons  vary  in  different 
shops.    This  is  due  partly  to  the  superior  efficiency 

47 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

of  one  firm  over  another  in  securing  orders,  partly 
to  the  reputation  of  one  shop  in  producing  a  line  of 
goods  which  happens  at  the  moment  to  be  most 
fashionable,  and  partly  to  various  other  causes  of 
success  or  failure.  At  any  rate  it  is  true  that  not 
only  is  the  year  divided  into  dull  and  busy  seasons, 
but  within  the  busy  season  employment  fluctuates 
in  a  way  which  cannot  be  foreseen.  As  an  example 
of  variations  from  season  to  season,  one  employer  in 
a  small  shop  showed  his  payroll  for  corresponding 
weeks  in  two  successive  years.  In  1909  the  total 
wages  paid  out  in  the  second  week  in  May  amounted 
to  $113.42,  while  in  the  same  week  in  19 10  the 
total  fell  to  $15.  "The  season  depends  on  what 
takes,"  said  an  employer.  "This  is  a  bad  busi- 
ness," said  another.  "  At  one  time  there  is  so  much 
to  be  done  you'd  give  any  wage  to  a  girl,  and  at 
another  time  you  can  not  give  your  goods  away. 
There  are  plenty  of  girls  in  the  trade  but  the 
trouble  is  that  too  many  are  wanted  at  one  time 
for  only  a  short  period." 

Such  uncertainty  accounts  for  many  changes 
among  the  workers.  That  there  are  other  factors, 
however,  is  shown  in  the  following  tabulation 
(Table  10)  of  reasons  given  by  the  workers  for 
loss  of  positions  in  flower  shops. 

The  table  shows  that  the  ending  of  the  season 
accounts  for  the  loss  of  positions  in  two-fifths  of 
the  cases  considered,  but  it  indicates  also  the  num- 
ber of  other  factors  that  enter  into  the  causes  of 
irregular  employment.    The  failure  or  removal  of 

48 


THE   SEASONS   AND   UNEMPLOYMENT 

firms;  the  return  to  other  work  previously  tried; 
dissatisfaction  with  conditions;  illness;  disagree- 
ment with  forewomen  or  others  in  the  workrooms; 
and  "to  advance,"  the  hope  of  getting  ahead 
faster  in  some  other  shop, — these  all  contribute 
to  irregularity  of  employment.    Some  of  them, 

TABLE    10. — REASONS    FOR    LEAVING    POSITIONS     IN 

ARTIFICIAL     FLOWER     SHOPS,     AS     STATED     BY 

ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 


POSITIONS  LEFT  FOR 

EACH  SPECIFIED 

Reasons  for  leaving  positions 

REASON 

Number 

Per  cent 

Slack  season 

90 

42 

To  advance — higher  wages  or  better  work  . 

41 

«9 

Disagreement,  etc 

15 

7 

Firm  failed,  moved,  etc 

13 

6 

Dissatisfaction  with  conditions  of  work 

9 

4 

To  return  to  other  work       .... 

9 

4 

Illness 

6 

3 

Other  miscellaneous  reasons 

3i 

15 

Total 

214 

100 

such  as  "  to  return  to  other  work  "  or  "  to  advance," 
are  often  traceable  to  seasonal  conditions,  while 
others,  such  as  "disagreement"  and  other  more  or 
less  trivial  difficulties  counted  in  the  same  group, 
of  reasons,  may  indicate  in  many  cases  a  casual 
attitude  toward  the  trade,  due  in  large  measure 
to  the  disorganized,  irregular  character  of  the  in- 
dustry.    It  is  not  conducive  to  skill  or  pride  in 

49 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 

one's  work  to  face  uncertainty  in  the  length  of 
employment  and  to  turn  periodically  to  employ- 
ment elsewhere,  in  candy  factories,  card  factories, 
ribbon  factories,  sewing  trades,  paper  box  making, 
saleswork,  packing  chandeliers,  packing  olives, 
wrapping  electrical  novelties,  embroidering,  ma- 
chine operating  on  underwear  or  children's  dresses, 
making  neckties,  sewing  rings  on  overalls,  or 
painting  pipes.  All  these  occupations  are  repre- 
sented in  the  group  of  girls  whom  we  interviewed. 
In  spite  of  this  versatility  in  combining  trades, 
steady  employment  the  year  round  is  very  un- 
usual among  the  girls  who  are  flower  makers  in  the 
busy  months  in  that  trade.  In  every  interview 
the  visitor  discussed  with  the  girl  the  amount  of 
time  lost  in  the  preceding  twelve  months.  The 
reports  of  105  appear  in  Tables  11  and  12,  the 

TABLE    11. — TIME     LOST     IN    THE    YEAR    PRECEDING 

DATE    OF    INTERVIEW    FROM    ALL    CAUSES    BY 

WOMEN      EMPLOYED     IN      ARTIFICIAL 

FLOWER     MAKING4 


Time  lost 

Women  losing  the 
time  specified 

"No  time" 

Less  than  i  month 

1  month  and  less  than  3  months     . 
3  months  and  less  than  6  months   . 
6  months  and  over 

15 
32 

35 
21 

2 

Total  reporting 

105 

aOf  1 74  women  interviewed,  41  had  not  been  wage-earners  during 
the  past  full  year,  and  28  did  not  supply  definite  information. 

50 


THE    SEASONS   AND   UNEMPLOYMENT 

first  indicating  time  lost  for  all  causes,  and  the 
second  showing  the  loss  due  to  slack  season. 

TABLE    12. — TIME     LOST    IN    THE    YEAR    PRECEDING 

DATE      OF      INTERVIEW      BECAUSE     OF      SLACK 

SEASON     BY    WOMEN     EMPLOYED     IN 

ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKING a 


Time  lost 

Women  losing  the 
time  specified 

"No  time" 

Less  than  I  month 

I  month  and  less  than  3  months     . 
3  months  and  less  than  6  months    . 
6  months  and  over 

29 
31 
3i 
13 

Total  reporting 

105 

aOf  174  women  interviewed,  41  had  not  been  wage-earners  during 
the  past  full  year,  and  28  did  not  supply  definite  information. 

These  figures  are  a  record  of  the  time  actually 
lost,  in  spite  of  employment  in  other  occupations 
when  the  season  of  flower  making  was  over.  Thus 
they  do  not  show  the  total  time  out  of  work  in 
the  flower  trade.  Furthermore,  such  data  are 
liable  to  contain  the  error  of  understatement, 
since  the  worker  often  fails  to  recall  frequent 
losses  of  short  intervals  whose  combined  total 
may  be  considerable.  According  to  Table  1 1 
only  15  girls,  or  one-seventh,  reported  no  time 
lost  for  any  cause.  Over  half  had  been  out  of 
work  a  month  or  more,  due  to  the  same  variety 
of  causes  already  listed  as  reasons  for  leaving 
positions.     Because  of  slack  season  alone,  31  lost 

51 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

less  than  a  month,  an  equal  number  were  out  of 
work  from  one  to  three  months,  while  1 3  lost  time 
varying  from  three  to  six  months.  The  effect 
of  these  losses  on  yearly  income  will  be  discussed 
in  the  chapter  on  wages.  It  may  be  roughly 
estimated  here,  however,  that  after  workers  have 
followed  several  different  occupations  in  the 
course  of  a  year  only  about  one  girl  in  seven  will 
have  received  wages  for  fifty-two  weeks. 

Nearly  half  of  the  174  flower  makers  interviewed 
had  worked  on  fancy  or  ostrich  feathers  during 
their  careers.  Ability  to  turn  to  this  trade  is  the 
solution  of  the  seasonal  problem  most  often  urged 
by  employers  and  workers.  The  close  connection 
between  these  two  industries  has  already  been 
described.  The  manufacture  of  ostrich  feathers 
usually  stands  as  a  separate  industry  with  a  longer 
season  of  work,  but  fancy  feather  making  and  the 
manufacture  of  artificial  flowers  are  twin  trades 
whose  seasons  for  the  most  part  do  not  overlap  but 
rather  fit  into  one  another,  making  it  possible  for 
workers  to  turn  from  one  to  the  other.  Of  the  1 14 
flower  shops  investigated,  54  manufactured  also 
fancy  feathers.  This  number  is  not  a  fixed  one, 
for  flower  factories  may  add  feather  departments, 
and  vice  versa,  or  the  flower  or  feather  department 
of  a  millinery  supply  house  may  be  discontinued 
without  involving  any  great  change  of  policy  on 
the  part  of  the  firm.  From  the  point  of  view  of 
the  workers,  however,  opinions  differ  as  to  the 
feasibility  of  thus  combining  the  two  occupations. 

52 


THE    SEASONS   AND    UNEMPLOYMENT 

A  brief  description  of  the  fancy  feather  trade  at 
this  point  seems  desirable. 

The  industry  includes  all  feather  manufacture 
other  than  ostrich  feathers;  for  example,  quills, 
birds,  marabous,  aigrettes,  "paradises/'  and  the 
making  of  all  sorts  of  marvellous  combinations 
which  no  bird  has  ever  worn.  As  in  flower  mak- 
ing, dyeing  is  one  of  the  most  important  of  the 
processes  and  it  is  done  by  men.  The  processes  in 
the  girls'  department  are  "stringing/'  or  tying  the 
feathers  at  intervals  on  a  cord  in  preparation  for 
dyeing;  "steaming"  them,  or  holding  them  over 
boiling  water  to  make  them  pliable  or  to  give 
them  certain  effects;  "preparing,"  or  cleaning  and 
assorting  the  feathers.  The  feathers  are  then 
pasted  or  sewed  on  frames  in  different  designs,  such 
as  heads,  breasts,  wings;  or  they  may  be  wired  or 
branched  into  various  styles  of  feather  ornaments. 
The  stemming  or  papering  of  the  free  ends  of 
wire  is  usually  the  final  process  for  completing  the 
product  for  sale  to  milliners. 

A  large  Broadway  flower  and  feather  factory 
employing  ioo  girls  is  an  example  of  the  combina- 
tion of  the  two  occupations,  since  the  same  work- 
ers are  taught  both.  The  forewoman  said  that 
t  the  flower  season  begins  in  October  and  ends  in 
May,  and  the  feather  season  is  nominally  from 
May  to  October.  Usually,  however,  there  is  a 
month  or  two  between  seasons,  so  that  the  workers 
who  combine  the  two  trades  cannot  count  on 
more  than  ten  months  of  employment  in  the  year. 

53 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

This  statement  was  borne  out  by  the  testimony 
of  a  worker  who  had  learned  the  flower  trade 
fifteen  years  ago  and  who  is  now  employed  alter- 
nately in  flower  making  and  fancy  feather  making. 
She  has  advanced  to  the  position  of  forewoman 
and  designer  in  both  trades.  She  said  that  the 
flower  season  lasts  from  September  to  May,  that 
there  is  very  little  occupation  in  it  in  June,  and 
that  then  the  fancy  feather  season  starts,  lasting 
until  Thanksgiving  Day,  thus  overlapping  a  little 
with  the  autumn  season  in  flower  making.  Thus 
although  June  is  dull,  and  the  autumn  flower 
season  uncertain,  the  worker  who  understands 
both  flower  and  feather  making  will  have  a  much 
longer  period  of  employment  than  would  be  pos- 
sible if  she  had  learned  only  flower  making. 

On  the  other  hand,  many  workers  object  to  the 
feather  trade  because,  they  say,  it  is  unpleasant 
work,  and  they  believe  it  to  be  unhealthy.  One 
girl  who  had  combined  flower  making  with  the 
mounting  of  fancy  feathers  and  had  thus  avoided 
the  loss  of  any  time,  complained  of  the  dirt  and  the 
dust  especially  in  the  process  of  taking  the  bones 
from  wings.  Another,  who  worked  on  ostrich 
feathers,  said  that  she  was  obliged  to  keep  her  hair 
covered  during  her  work  and  that  she  felt  "choked 
up"  at  the  end  of  the  day.  Others  mentioned  the 
fact  that  the  dust  and  the  small  particles  which 
flew  off  from  the  feathers  when  they  were  sewing 
them  hurt  their  throats  and  "often  gave  girls 
consumption. " 

54 


THE    SEASONS   AND    UNEMPLOYMENT 

Employers  recognized  these  objections.  One 
with  a  force  of  50  hands  who  manufactures  both 
flowers  and  feathers  said  that  very  few  of  his  em- 
ployes combined  both  occupations.  "The  two 
trades  are  utterly  different.  Only  the  branchers 
can  pass  easily  from  one  to  the  other."  Another 
employer  said  that  the  necessity  to  serve  an  ap- 
prenticeship at  lower  pay  prevented  flower  makers 
from  working  on  feathers.  "  If  they  can  earn  $10 
at  flowers  they  don't  want  to  go  back  to  $4.00  or 
$5.00  to  learn  feathers.  Moreover,  a  good  flower 
maker  is  rarely  a  good  fancy  feather  maker/ ' 

Whether  these  opinions  of  employers  as  to  the 
desirability  of  a  combination  of  two  occupations 
be  correct  or  not,  the  feather  trade,  for  reasons 
already  given,  cannot  and  does  not  completely 
solve  the  problem  of  the  irregularity  of  the 
seasons  for  all  flower  makers.  This  is  proved  by 
the  fact  that  feathers  are  made  in  less  than  half 
of  the  flower  factories  investigated,  and  that  only 
85,  less  than  half  of  the  flower  makers  interviewed, 
could  work  on  feathers.  Moreover,  as  already 
noted,  even  the  larger  firms  who  manufacture  both 
flowers  and  feathers,  and  who  say  that  they  keep 
their  workers  "all  year  round,"  report  that  "be- 
tween seasons,"  that  is,  in  December  and  in  June, 
the  workers  have  a  "vacation"  (without  pay)  of 
three  weeks  or  a  month.  This  is  better,  of  course, 
than  being  laid  off  indefinitely,  for  the  worker  is 
practically  sure  of  returning  at  a  date  known  in 
advance;  but  with  wages  at  their  present  level,  to 

55 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

most  workers  this  interval  of  unemployment  is  a 
serious  hardship. 

Yet  no  method  of  lengthening  the  seasons  of 
employment  for  flower  makers  is  as  yet  advocated 
or  attempted  by  workers  or  employers.  Laymen 
who  talk  about  the  "marvelous  organization  of 
modern  industries"  need  only  inquire  into  the 
methods  of  steadying  the  seasons  in  almost  any 
trade  which  employs  a  large  number  of  women,  to 
discover  proof  of  a  most  lamentable  lack  of  effi- 
cient organization.  So  few  are  the  efforts  made 
in  this  direction  that  we  are  forced  to  the  conclusion 
that  business  conditions  have  not  compelled  manu- 
facturers to  give  attention  to  the  problem.*  In 
other  words,  it  appears  to  be  not  so  difficult  to 
secure  workers  in  the  busy  season  as  to  compel 
firms  to  devise  means  of  prolonging  their  employ- 

*  An  employer  who  read  this  report  contradicted  this  statement  in 
so  far  as  it  implied  indifference  on  the  part  of  manufacturers.  "  If 
anybody  could  invent  a  method  for  us  of  avoiding  slack  season  we'd 
give  him  a  fortune,"  he  said.  Nevertheless,  judging  by  present  con- 
ditions, it  seems  clear  that  employers  and  workers  accept  the  fact  of 
irregular  employment  as  inevitable,  and  no  concerted  effort  has  been 
made  to  solve  the  problem.  This  statement  is  corroborated  by  the 
fact  that  an  association  of  artificial  flower  manufacturers,  organized 
in  1908,  discussed  first  of  all  not  the  lack  of  work  in  dull  season  but 
the  inconvenience  of  having  their  workers  "enticed"  from  one  factory 
to  another  in  busy  season.  The  Millinery  Trade  Review,  November, 
1908,  thus  reported  the  first  meeting:  "Itis  thedesire of  the  promoters 
to  enlist  the  interest  of  every  manufacturer  of  artificial  flowers  in 
New  York  and  vicinity  as  members  of  the  organization.  The  state- 
ment made  by  those  present  regarding  the  enticing  of  help  from  one 
factory  to  another  makes  it  imperative  that  some  arrangement  should 
be  entered  into  whereby  the  trade  at  large  would  be  protected  against 
extra  inducements  offered  to  secure  the  help  of  competing  manu- 
facturers and  thus  crippling  concerns  in  the  height  of  the  busy  season. 
There  are  other  matters  of  equal  importance  that  the  manufacturers 
hope  to  take  up  in  the  near  future." 

56 


A  Building  which  Houses  Three  Flower  Factories 


Once  a  Residence,  Now  a  Flower  Factory 


THE   SEASONS   AND   UNEMPLOYMENT 

ment  through  twelve  months.  In  reply  to  ques- 
tions on  the  subject,  2 1 ,  or  18  per  cent,  of  the  firms 
reported  that  they  had  no  difficulty  in  obtaining 
workers  even  in  the  busy  season ;  77,  or  68  per  cent, 
said  that  they  could  not  secure  enough;  and  14 
per  cent  were  indifferent  to  the  question,  appar- 
ently regarding  it  as  by  no  means  impossible  to 
find  workers  when  they  needed  them.  Many 
complained  of  lack  of  efficient  employes  but  all 
agreed  that  if  there  were  any  scarcity  from  the 
point  of  view  of  numbers,  it  was  only  at  the  height 
of  the  season. 

At  that  time  the  "cheap  and  docile  home  work- 
ers" are  a  great  resource  for  the  employers. 
Competition  for  work  is  keen  among  them.  After 
the  long  dull  months  when  they  have  no  work,  they 
are  eager  to  toil  until  late  at  night,  producing  in 
a  short  time  enough  goods  to  supply  the  market  for 
the  season.  It  is  the  volume  of  business  rather 
than  its  distribution  through  the  year  which 
chiefly  determines  the  success  of  the  manufacturer. 
Employers  would  doubtless  find  a  more  even  dis- 
tribution convenient,  but  steady  production  in 
their  workrooms  is  not  enough  of  a  factor  in  their 
success  to  compel  them  to  take  steps  toward 
prolonging  the  season  for  their  workers.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  the  universal  testimony  of  workers 
of  experience  that  their  welfare  depends  upon 
steady  work,  and  that  overwork  for  a  few  months 
followed  by  part  time  or  idleness  is  for  them  a  most 
serious  calamity. 

57 


CHAPTER  IV 
WAGES   AND    HOME    RESPONSIBILITIES 

THAT  the  short  and  irregular  season  is  a 
calamity  for  flower  makers  becomes  more 
evident  when  the  facts  about  wages  in  this 
trade  are  known.  Furthermore,  information  about 
the  home  conditions  and  family  responsibilities  of 
these  workers  shows  that  low  earnings  and  unem- 
ployment affect  not  only  the  individual  wage- 
earner  but  serve  constantly  to  undermine  the 
standard  of  living  of  the  family  group. 

It  may  be  well  to  begin  with  the  most  favorable 
view  of  the  situation,  and  to  discuss  employers' 
statements  regarding  the  maximum  earnings  of 
the.  best  paid  flower  makers  in  a  busy  week  of  the 
year  in  their  establishments.  Tables  1 3  and  14  are 
based  on  a  tabulation  of  this  information.  The 
wages  of  forewomen  are  excluded.  The  tables  do 
not  show  minimum  earnings  or  the  wage  of  the 
majority  but  indicate  the  number  of  establish- 
ments in  which  one  or  more  of  the  women  em- 
ployes receive  the  stated  maximum,  and  the 
number  of  women  working  in  them.  Table  14 
shows  not  the  number  of  women  receiving  the\ 
specified  wages  but  the  total  number  employed  in 
shops  whose  owners  stated  that  they  paid  that 

58 


WAGES   AND   HOME    RESPONSIBILITIES 

wage  as  a  maximum  to  at  least  one  of  their  women 
employes. 

TABLE   13. — ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER    SHOPS,    BY    MAXI- 
MUM   WEEKLY    WAGES    PAID    TO    WOMENa 


Maximum  weekly  wages  paid 
to  women 

SHOPS     IN    WHICH    THE    MAXIMUM 

WEEKLY  WAGE   PAID  TO  WOMEN 

WAS  AS  SPECIFIED 

Time  work 

Piece  work 

Total 

Under  $10         .... 

$10  and  under  $12   . 

$12  and  under  $15   . 

$15  and  under  $20  . 

$20  and  over     .... 

19 
20 
20 

9 

1 

5 

7 

17 

^11 

2 

24 
27 

37 
20 

3 

Total 

69 

42 

in 

a  Of  1 14  firms  investigated,  three  did  not  supply  information. 

TABLE      14. — WOMEN      EMPLOYED       IN      ARTIFICIAL 

FLOWER  SHOPS,   BY  MAXIMUM  WEEKLY  WAGES 

PAID  TO  WOMEN  IN  THE  SHOPS  IN  WHICH 

THEY  WERE    EMPLOYED  a 


Maximum     weekly     wages 

WOMEN  EMPLOYED  IN  SHOPS  IN  WHICH 

THE  MAXIMUM  WEEKLY  WAGE  PAID 

TO  WOMEN   WAS   AS   SPECIFIED 

paid  to  women 

Time 
work 

Piece 
work 

Total 

Number 

Per  cent 

Under  $10 
$10  and  under  $12    . 
$12  and  under  $15    . 
$15  and  under  $20    . 
$20  and  over 

641 

1,009 
1,343 

82 

66 
3i7 
793 
494 
105 

707 

1,326 

2,136 

865 

187 

13-5 
25.4 
40.9 
16.6 
3.6 

Total  .... 

3,446 

1,775 

5,221 

100. 0 

aOf  114  firms  investigated,  three  employing  19  women  did  not 
supply  information. 

59 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

In  nearly  four-fifths  of  the  shops,  88  in  number, 
employing  4,169,  or  80  per  cent  of  the  total  num- 
ber of  women  in  the  trade,  the  highest  weekly 
wage  received  by  any  woman  is  less  than  $15, 
while  39  per  cent  are  in  shops  in  which  the  maxi- 
mum never  reaches  $12.  The  maximum  is  $12 
or  more  in  a  larger  proportion  of  shops  paying 
their  best  workers  by  the  piece  than  of  those  pay- 
ing them  by  time.* 

These  figures  show  maximum  possibilities.  The 
important  question  to  ask  is  how  many  women 
in  the  shops  are  found  in  these  maximum  groups, 
and  how  large  a  proportion  receive  much  less. 
The  answer  is  contained  both  in  official  census 
figures  and  in  the  data  of  our  investigation.  In 
taking  the  census  of  1905,  agents  of  the  United 
States  government  copied  the  payrolls  for  one 
week  in  90  artificial  flower  and  feather  establish- 
ments in  the  United  States,  securing  wage  records 
of  1,845  women.  The  facts  are  not  stated  sep- 
arately for  flower  makers,  nor  are  they  given  for 
New  York  City;  but  as  so  large  a  proportion  of 
the  flower  and  feather  makers  in  the  whole  United 
States  are  in  New  York,f  the  facts  may  be  used 
as  an  indication  of  conditions  in  this  city.  The 
figures  were  the  weekly  earnings  in  a  busy  part  of 
the  year,  and  in  them  no  allowance  was  made  for 
slack  seasons.     In  Table   15,   the  proportion  of 

*  Time  workers  receive  a  definite  weekly  wage.  Piece  workers  are 
paid  by  the  number  of  flowers  produced. 

t  Four-fifths  of  the  women  employed  live  in  New  York  City. 
See  p.  6. 

60 


WAGES   AND   HOME    RESPONSIBILITIES 

women  in  each  of  the  wage  groups  is  shown  and 
compared  with  the  proportion  of  women  in  the  cor- 
responding wage  groups  in  all  industries.  The  com- 
parative earnings  of  men  in  flower  and  feather 
shops  are  also  indicated. 

TABLE  15. — WEEKLY  EARNINGS  OF  MEN  AND 
WOMEN  EMPLOYED  IN  THE  ARTIFICIAL  FLOWER 
AND  FEATHER  MAKING  INDUSTRY,  AND  OF  WOMEN 
EMPLOYED  IN  ALL  MANUFACTURING  INDUSTRIES, 
UNITED   STATES,    1905  a 


EMPLOYES 

IN  FLOWER 

WOMEN    IN    ALL 

AND  FEATHE! 

MANUFACTUR- 

Weekly earnings  of 

Men 

Women 

ING  INDUSTRIES 

employes 

Num- 

Per 

Num- 

Per 

Num- 

Per 

ber 

cent 

ber 

cent 

ber 

cent 

Under  $3.00 

7 

2.7 

245 

13-3 

43.858 

7-5 

$3.00  and  under  $4.00 

10 

3 

9 

221 

12 

0 

64, 1 70 

10.9 

$4.00  and  under  $5.00 

14 

5 

5 

264 

14 

3 

88,657 

15. 1 

$5.00  and  under  $6.00 

12 

4 

7 

290 

15 

7 

95,674 

16.3 

f 6.00  and  under  $7.00 

14 

5 

5 

i«5 

10 

0 

97,3 » 1 

16.5 

$7.00  and  under  $8.00 

16 

6 

3 

157 

8 

5 

68,192 

11. 6 

f 8.00  and  under  $9.00 

n 

6 

6 

145 

7 

9 

47,170 

8.0 

$9.00  and  under  $10 

42 

16 

4 

IOI 

5 

5 

34,050 

5-8 

$10  and  under  $12    , 

40 

"5 

6 

1 12 

6 

1 

29,633 

5.0 

$12  and  under  $15    . 

37 

14 

5 

87 

4 

7 

14,294 

2.4 

$15  and  over     . 

47 

18 

3 

38 

2 

0 

5,590 

0.9 

Total  . 

256 

100. 0 

1,845 

100. 0 

588,599 

100. 0 

Average  weekly  earn- 

ings 

$  1 0 . 80 

$6.20 

$6.17 

a  United  States  Census.    Bulletin  93,  Earnings  of  Wage-Earners, 
Manufactures,  pp.  82,  90,  and  98.     1905. 


According  to  these  census  figures,  more  than 
half  the  women,  55.3  per  cent,  in  the  flower  and 

61 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 

feather  industry  earned  less  than  $6.00  in  a  busy 
week  of  the  year.  Slightly  more  than  one-fourth, 
483,  earned  $8.00  or  over,  and  only  about  one  in 


Number  of  Women 
100     150     200 


290 


Earnings 

$15  and  over 
$12  and  under  $15 
$10  and  under  $12 
$9  and  under  $10 
$8  and  under  $9 
$7  and  under  $3 
$6  and  under  $7 
$5  and  under  $6 
$4  and  under  $5 
$3  and  under  $4 

Under  $3 

0     60     100 

Total  number  of  women  considered  . 

Chart  II. — Women  Employed  in  Artificial  Flower  and  Feather 
Making,  by  Weekly  Earnings,  United  States,  1905 

16  rose  to  $12  or  over.     Chart  II  visualizes  these 
facts. 

A  larger  group,  13.3  per  cent  in  the  flower  and 
feather  trade  as  against  7.5  per  cent  in  all  industries, 
earned  less  than  $3.00.  The  point  in  the  wage  scale 
at  which  the  groups  divide,  half  earning  less  and 
half  earning  more,  is  between  $5.00  and  $6.00  for 
artificial  flower  and  feather  makers  and  between 
$6.00   and   $7.00   for  women   in  all    industries. 

62 


WAGES   AND   HOME    RESPONSIBILITIES 

Furthermore,  a  slightly  larger  proportion  of  flower 
and  feather  makers,  6.7  per  cent  as  compared  with 
3.3  per  cent  in  all  industries,  earned  $  12  or  more. 

The  contrast  be-tween  the  earnings  of  men  and 
the  earnings  of  women  is  marked.  Larger  groups 
of  men  are  found  earning  above  $9.00  than  below 
that  sum, — just  the  reverse  of  the  figures  for 
women.  This  showing  does  not  mean  necessarily 
that  women  in  the  trade  receive  unequal  pay  for 
equal  work,  for  men  and  women,  as  has  been  said, 
work  in  different  departments.  It  is  simply  an 
added  proof  of  the  statement  that  in  those  trades 
in  which  men  have  one  set  of  tasks  and  women 
another,  the  tasks  of  men  are  more  remunerative. 
The  facts  about  the  flower  trade  do  not  supply  us 
with  conclusive  reasons  for  the  difference  in  re- 
muneration, but  they  justify  the  statement  that  in 
this  trade,  which  at  first  glance  would  be  consid- 
ered pre-eminently  women's  work,  women's  wages 
average  about  60  per  cent  of  the  wages  of  men. 

Wages  differ  for  different  processes,  but  a  tabu- 
lation of  employers'  statements  on  this  point 
would  be  of  little  value,  as  occupations  called  by 
the  same  name  are  not  equal  in  grade  in  all  fac- 
tories. With  the  exception  of  designing  and 
dyeing,  "branching"  is  the  most  remunerative 
work,  with  "making"  second;  but  as  one  employer 
pointed  out,  these  operations  are  not  standardized, 
and  therefore  wages  are  not  uniform.  Neverthe- 
less, the  general  range  of  weekly  wages  as  stated 
by  employers  is  shown  in  the  following  list. 

63 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 


PROCESS  AND  METHOD 


OF  PAYMENT 

; 

WEEKLY  WAGES 

Designing 

Time  work $25.00 

Dyeing 

Time  work 

$22 

00 

Branching 

Time  work 

$6 

oo-$i5.oo 

Piece  work 

$5 

oo-$i8.oo 

Making 

Time  work 

$3 

oo-$i5.oo 

Piece  work 

15 

oo-$i5.oo 

Rose  making 

Time  work 

$4 

oo-$i3.oo 

Piece  work 

$4 

oo-$i5.oo 

Foliage  making 

Time  work 

$5 

00-  $8.00 

Piece  work 

*7 

00-  $8  00 

Goffering 

Time  work 

$7 

00-  $8.00 

Neither  the  statements  of  employers  nor  official 
transcripts  of  payrolls  tell  us  how  long  the  workers 
in  the  various  wage  groups  have  been  employed. 
This  information  must  be  secured  from  the  girls 
themselves.  Table  16  gives  data  for  the  174  girls 
interviewed  during  the  course  of  the  investigation, 
and  shows  their  wages  correlated  with  years  of 
experience. 

For  those  who  have  been  at  work  less  than  one 
year  the  average  weekly  wage  is  $3.62 ;  one  to  three 
years,  $5.84;  three  to  five  years,  $7.74;  five  to  ten 
years,  $9.11;  and  ten  years  or  longer,  $11.65. 
Roughly  speaking,  the  increase  amounts  to  about 
$1.00  a  year,  with  small  chance  of  earning  more 
than  $12  even  if  the  experience  be  longer  than  ten 

64 


WAGES   AND    HOME    RESPONSIBILITIES 

years.  The  nine  who  earned  more  than  that  in- 
cluded a  skilled  brancher  of  twenty  years'  ex- 
perience, an  assistant  forewoman  in  charge  of  stock 
in  the  flower  department  of  one  of  the  largest 
millinery   supply   houses,   a   brancher  of   eleven 


TABLE  16. — WEEKLY   WAGES  OF  WOMEN    EMPLOYED 

IN     ARTIFICIAL     FLOWER     MAKING     BY     YEARS 

OF   EMPLOYMENT   IN   THE  TRADEa 


WOMEN  WHO  HAVE  BEEN  EMPLOYED  IN 

ARTIFICIAL  FLOWER  MAKING 

Weekly  wages 

Less 

1  year 
and 

3  years 
and 

5  years 
and 

All 
women 

than 

less 

less 

less 

1  year 

than 
3  years 

than 
5  years 

than 
10  years 

or  more 

Under  $5.00 

39 

12 

1 

52 

$5.00  and  under  $6.00 

3 

10 

4 

1 

18 

$6.00  and  under  $7.00 

7 

11 

7 

1 

26 

$7.00  and  under  $8.00 

8 

7 

3 

1 

20 

$8.00  and  under  $9.00 

4 

5 

2 

1 

12 

$9.00  and  under  $10 

1 

6 

5 

3 

15 

$10  and  under  $12   . 

1 

6 

6 

5 

»9 

$12  and  under  $20   . 

1 

2 

5 

8 

$20  and  over     . 

1 

1 

Total  . 

5i 

47 

37 

19 

17 

171 

Average  weekly  wages 

$3.62 

I5.84 

$7-74 

$9.11 

$11.65 

$6.72 

a  Of  174  women  interviewed,  three  did  not  supply  information. 

years'  experience,  and  a  rose  maker  who  in  the 
course  of  her  fifteen  years  of  work  in  flower  shops 
had  held  a  position  as  forewoman  but  preferred 
now  to  have  less  responsibility  with  equal  wages. 
The  fifth  was  a  forewoman  with  thirty-seven  years' 

65 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

experience,  and  the  sixth,  who  earned  the  maximum 
of  $30,  was  a  forewoman  and  designer  in  a  large 
factory  manufacturing  both  flowers  and  feathers. 
The  three  others  in  the  higher  wage  groups  had  had 
less  than  ten  years'  experience, — one  a  forewoman 
who  had  worked  eight  years  in  a  flower  factory, 
another  a  forewoman  of  seven  years'  experience, 
and  the  last  the  niece  of  an  employer  who  was  in 
charge  of  the  giving  out  of  work  to  a  large  force  of 
home  workers.  Each  of  these  three  earned  $12. 
The  average  weekly  wage  of  the  whole  group,  ex- 
cluding forewomen,  was  $6.37.  If  we  include 
forewomen  and  drop  all  workers  under  sixteen 
years  of  age,  as  was  done  in  the  census  enumera- 
tion of  1905,  we  have  an  average  for  our  group  of 
$7.24  as  compared  with  the  census  average  of 
$6.20.*  The  average  weekly  wage  of  all  women 
eighteen  years  of  age  and  over,  including  fore- 
women in  our  group,  was  $8.28. 

These  statements  regarding  the  whole  group 
should  not  be  understood  as  indicating  that  the 
rate  of  increase  is  fixed  and  invariable  for  every 
worker  in  the  trade.  Girls  who  had  worked  ten 
years  or  longer  in  flower  shops  were  found  to  be 
earning  a  wage  of  $6.00  or  $7.00;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  workers  of  two  or  three  years'  experience  had 
received  $10  or  $11  in  their  pay  envelopes.  In 
fact,  the  table  shows  considerable  variation  in 
wage  among  girls  of  each  group  whose  experience 

*  United  States  Census,  Bulletin  93,  Earnings  of  Wage-Earners, 
Manufactures,  p.  98.     1905. 

66 


WAGES   AND   HOME    RESPONSIBILITIES 

was  of  equal  length.  For  example,  for  the  girls 
who  had  worked  one  or  two  years  in  the  trade  the 
wage  varied  from  $3.25  to  $10,  and  for  those  who 
had  worked  three  or  four  years,  from  $4.50  to  $12. 

The  fixing  of  the  wage  seems  indeed  to  be  a 
matter  of  chance.  It  was  described  by  a  fore- 
woman, who  said  that  although  a  definite  percent- 
age of  the  price  of  the  flower  was  always  allowed 
for  salesmen's  pay  and  firm's  profits,  the  wage 
rate  was  determined  by  the  forewoman's  guess. 
She  made  it  as  low  as  possible  without  causing  a 
spontaneous  uprising  in  the  workroom.  As  no 
trade  union  has  been  developed  to  force  flower 
manufacturers  to  adopt  a  definite  wage  scale  it  is 
inevitable  that  variety  and  fluctuation  should 
characterize  the  earnings  of  flower  makers. 

Nationality  is  also  said  to  be  a  factor  in  wage 
variation*  Again  and  again  an  investigator  hears 
the  statement  that  Italian  girls  in  the  trade  under- 
bid the  workers  of  other  nationalities  and  thus  de- 
press wages.  For  example,  one  young  Russian 
girl  said  of  her  Italian  fellow-workers  that  they 
are  quick  and  "work  like  horses,"  but  that  "they 
spoil  the  trade  because  they  don't  stick  up  for 
their  prices";  that  "an  American  girl  will  say  she 
won't  make  a  flower  for  less  than  10  cents  a  gross, 
and  the  Italian  girl  will  come  forward  and  say  she 
will  do  it  for  8  cents."  The  same  sort  of  comment 
is  occasionally  made  by  employers,  who  complain 
of  the  changing  personnel  of  the  workers,  and  the 

*  See  pages  30-35. 

67 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

lowering  of  standards  through  the  low  pay  ac- 
cepted by  Italians.  It  was  therefore  with  great 
interest  that  we  tabulated  separately  the  wages  of 
Italian  workers  for  the  purpose  of  tentative  com- 
parison with  the  wages  of  girls  of  other  nationali- 
ties.   The  results  are  shown  in  Table  17. 

Of  the  whole  group  investigated  124  were 
Italians  or  the  children  of  Italian  fathers,  and  50 
were  of  other  nationalities,  including  those  from 
Russia,  Austria,  Hungary,  Bohemia,  and  the 
United  States.  The  table  shows  that  the  average 
wage  of  the  Italians  was  $6.64  as  compared  with  an 
average  of  $6.72  earned  by  the  group  of  other 
nationalities.  Closer  analysis  according  to  years 
of  experience  is,  however,  a  fairer  basis  of  com- 
parison, especially  when  the  numbers  considered 
are  small.  In  the  groups  of  workers  of  long  ex- 
perience the  cases  are  too  few  for  conclusive  state- 
ments. In  the  groups  of  workers  having  an  ex- 
perience of  one  to  three  years  the  average  wage 
is  $5.54  for  Italians  and  $6.32  for  other  nationali- 
ties, while  among  the  succeeding  group  the  Italians' 
average  wage  is  $8.40  compared  with  $11.77, 
indicating  a  lower  rate  of  earnings  for  Italians  in 
every  group  except  the  learners  of  less  than  a  year's 
experience.  Caution  is  needed  in  interpreting  such 
data,  however.  The  influence  of  any  nationality 
on  trade  standards  is  to  be  determined  not  merely 
by  differences  in  wages  received  at  a  given  time, 
but  also  by  statistics  of  different  periods  in  the 
history  of  the  industry  from  the  time  of  the  en- 

68 


Making  Foliage 


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69 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

trance  of  workers  of  another  race.  Unfortunately, 
such  data  are  not  available  for  previous  years  in 
the  artificial  flower  trade.  In  a  city  like  New 
York,  however,  where  so  many  of  the  wage-earners 
are  foreign  born  or  the  children  of  foreign  born 
parents,  questions  regarding  the  effect  which 
immigrant  workers  have  on  industrial  standards 
are  of  the  utmost  importance.  The  rapid  increase 
in  the  number  of  Italians  in  the  population  of  New 
York  makes  the  economic  standards  of  Italian 
women  workers  a  matter  of  prime  importance  to 
all  other  women  in  industry. 

Statistics  of  weekly  wages  cannot  give  a  just 
impression  of  the  real  income  of  flower  makers 
unless  some  effort  be  made  to  estimate  the  effect 
of  irregular  employment  on  yearly  earnings.  Such 
an  estimate  is  most  difficult.  Indeed,  it  cannot 
be  satisfactorily  computed  without  a  continuous 
study  of  wage-earners'  budgets  for  a  period  of  a 
year,  to  ascertain  not  only  the  wages  received 
from  one  establishment  (the  sort  of  information 
which  could  be  secured  from  payrolls),  but  the  full 
history  of  workers  who  have  drifted  from  shop  to 
shop  within  the  twelve  months.  Such  a  continu- 
ous study  was  impossible  in  this  investigation. 
Instead,  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  estimate 
the  approximate  yearly  income  of  the  flower 
makers  interviewed,  basing  the  estimate  on  a  com- 
bination of  facts  regarding  wages  and  information 
about  time  lost  from  work  in  the  twelve  months 
preceding  the  interview.     As  already  pointed  out 

70 


WAGES   AND   HOME    RESPONSIBILITIES 

in  the  chapter  on  the  seasons,  workers  frequently 
forget  small  periods  of  unemployment  which  may 
aggregate  no  small  loss  in  a  year,  so  that  an  es- 
timate of  their  total  income  is  liable  to  overstate 
the  amount  received.  Nevertheless,  information 
on  this  topic  is  so  much  needed  that  even  frag- 
mentary and  uncertain  data  are  worth  considering. 
Table  18  gives  the  estimate  for  82  flower  makers, 
and  covers  not  only  wages  received  in  flower  shops 
but  earnings  in  all  occupations  in  one  year. 


TABLE      18. — APPROXIMATE      YEARLY      INCOME      OF 
WOMEN      EMPLOYED     IN     ARTIFICIAL     FLOWER 
MAKING   WHO   HAD    BEEN    WAGE-EARNERS 
NOT  LESS   THAN    ONE   YEARa 


Yearly  income 

Flower  makers  whose  income 
was  as  specified 

Under  $100   . 
$100  and  under  $200   . 
$200  and  under  $300   . 
$300  and  under  $400   . 
$400  and  under  $500   . 
$500  and  under  $600   . 
$600  and  over 

1 
10 
31 
19 
14 
6 
1 

Total 

82 

aThe  figures  given  represent  income  from  all  occupations  in 
which  the  women  were  employed,  and  not  from  artificial  flower  mak- 
ing alone. 

One-half  the  group,  42,  had  a  yearly  income  of 
less  than  $300.  The  others  had  earned  from  $300 
to  $700,  but  only  seven  of  these  had  reached  $500. 
One  of  the  most  interesting  aspects  of  these  figures 

71 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

is  their  indication  that  from  the  point  of  view  of 
yearly  income  weekly  wage  statistics  must  be  dis- 
counted. The  average  weekly  wage  of  all  the 
women  investigated  who  had  had  a  year  or 
more  of  experience  was  $7.76.  If  employment 
were  steady  throughout  the  year  this  average 
weekly  wage  would  amount  to  an  average  yearly 
income  of  about  $400.  Nevertheless,  half  the 
workers  whose  earnings  in  twelve  months  could  be 
estimated  received  less  than  $300.  A  rough  com- 
parison of  these  last  two  statements  would  indicate 
that  the  tax  made  by  irregular  employment  on  the 
income  of  flower  makers  amounts  to  about  two 
dollars  a  week, — a  sum  by  no  means  insignificant. 
Without  some  knowledge  of  the  manner  of  living 
of  the  workers,  statistics  of  wages  received  are  as 
dry  bones.  Human  interest  centers  rather  more 
on  expenditure  than  on  income,  and  it  is  according 
to  our  knowledge  of  the  buying  power  of  a  dol- 
lar that  we  interpret  statements  about  wages. 
Furthermore,  the  relation  between  the  two  is  funda- 
mental in  a  different  sense.  Economic  pressure  is 
recognized  as  an  important  factor  in  the  wage 
bargain,  and  signs  are  not  lacking  to  indicate  that 
the  wage  received  is  in  inverse  ratio  to  the  pressure. 
It  is  the  worker  nearest  starvation  who  is  most 
likely  to  accept  starvation  wages.  If  this  be  true, 
then  the  worker's  standard  of  life  will  determine  in 
part  the  wage  received.  In  a  trade  where  there  is 
no  collective  bargaining  but  the  arranging  of  terms 
of  employment  is  left  to  individuals,  the  poverty 

72 


WAGES    AND    HOME    RESPONSIBILITIES 

of  applicants  for  positions  will  occasion  a  constant 
downward  pull  on  wage  standards.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  even  more  obvious  that  as  the  wage 
standards  in  a  trade  become  more  or  less  fixed 
within  certain  limits  they  will  determine  the  stand- 
ard of  living  possible  to  the  workers,  and  therefore 
tend  to  draw  to  the  trade  workers  from  those 
families  in  the  community  whose  manner  of  living 
most  nearly  approaches  that  wage  level.  To 
speak  of  "the  standard  of  living"  or  even  "the 
minimum  living  wage"  as  though  it  were  a  single 
fact  capable  of  definite  determination  for  a  whole 
complex  community  does  not  seem  in  accord  with 
actual  conditions.  It  is  more  reasonable  to  be- 
lieve that  standards  differ  in  different  occupations 
and  that  they  must  be  measured  with  reference  to 
the  two  main  factors,  trade  conditions  and  family 
requirements. 

In  this  investigation  the  subject  of  inquiry  was 
the  trade,  and  in  interviewing  workers  about  their 
trade  experiences  it  was  not  always  possible  to  take 
time  for  complete  investigation  of  home  condi- 
tions, especially  as  a  second  or  third  visit  is  often 
necessary  to  secure  this  more  personal  information 
regarding  the  family.  Nevertheless,  data  about 
the  relationship  of  the  174  flower  makers  to  the 
head  of  the  household  and  the  more  detailed  in- 
formation secured  in  128  families  about  the  work 
of  the  father  and  the  mother  and  other  wage- 
earners  in  their  family,  size  of  households,  rent  paid, 
and  number  of  children  not  yet  old  enough  to 

73 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 

work,  are  an  indication  of  the  home  standards  and 
family  responsibilities  not  only  of  those  inter- 
viewed but  of  a  still  wider  group  of  flower  makers 
of  which  our  group  was  representative. 

Flower  makers  in  New  York  do  not  come  from 
a  distance  to  their  work.  They  live  nearby  and 
save  carfare.  Only  nine  of  those  interviewed  re- 
ported that  they  paid  carfare  going  to  and  from 
their  shops.  Only  eight,  or  5  per  cent,  lived  north 
of  Fourteenth  Street.  West  of  Broadway  and 
south  of  Fourteenth  Street  were  found  the  homes 
of  12 1,  or  69  percent,  while  45,  or  26  percent,  lived 
on  the  east  side  of  Broadway,  south  of  Fourteenth 
Street. 

Girls  who  board  alone  in  New  York  are  not 
found  in  flower  shops,  doubtless  because  the  wages 
paid  are  too  low  to  enable  them  to  support  them- 
selves. Two  of  the  174  made  no  statement 
about  their  household  relationships.  Only  three 
were  boarding  or  living  alone,  without  the  protec- 
tion of  a  family  or  other  relatives.  For  the  re- 
maining 169,  or  97  per  cent  of  the  group,  who  lived 
with  their  families  (including  the  10  married 
women*),  the  protection  given  them  by  the  home 
brought  with  it  a  more  or  less  heavy  share  of  re- 
sponsibility for  maintaining  the  household.  In 
the  128  families  under  discussion  were  807  mem- 
bers, and  545  of  these  contributed  in  some  way  to 


*  It  should  be  remembered  that  in  this  chapter  we  are  describing 
women  at  work  in  the  shops.  Among  home  workers  the  proportion 
of  married  women  is  much  larger. 

74 


WAGES   AND   HOME    RESPONSIBILITIES 

the  family  budget.  In  only  93  of  the  128  families 
was  the  father  living  and  at  home,  and  even  in 
those  cases  he  was  not  always  a  wage-earner;  in 
29  cases  the  father  was  dead;  in  six  he  was  not  liv- 
ing with  his  family;  and  in  eight  he  was  ill  or  too 
old  to  work.  In  85,  the  father  was  a  contributor 
either  as  a  wage-earner  (58  cases),  or  from  "in- 
dependent business"  (21  cases),  or,  in  one  case, 
through  helping  in  home  work.  In  five  households 
the  father's  work  was  not  stated.  The  wage- 
earning  pursuits  included  professional  work  (a 
rabbi,  a  secretary,  and  a  translator) ;  the  trades  of 
carpenter,  cabinet  maker,  wood  turner,  cooper, 
painter,  mason,  marble  cutter,  and  tailor;  employ- 
ment in  factories  manufacturing  furs,  men's  caps, 
belts,  suspenders,  hats,  bags,  mirrors,  clocks, 
cigars,  candy,  artificial  flowers,  and  piano  strings; 
work  in  wine  shops,  butcher  shops,  and  saloons; 
employment  in  a  city  department,  and  as  driver, 
elevator  runner,  janitor  and  cleaner,  bootblack,  and 
day  laborer.  The  "independent  business"  men, 
as  distinct  from  wage-earners,  were:  a  real  estate 
agent,  a  contractor,  storekeeper,  keeper  of  a  fruit 
stand,  barber,  bootblack,  coal  dealer,  plumber, 
tinsmith,  shoemaker,  and  two  owners  of  small 
factories,  one  of  whom  manufactured  bronzes  and 
one  feather  dusters. 

Data  were  obtained  concerning  the  weekly  wages 
of  33  of  the  58  wage-earning  fathers  employed  at 
the  dates  of  the  interviews.  Of  these,  1 1  earned  less 
than  $10  a  week,  nine  earned  $10  to  $12,  four  $12 

75 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

to  $15,  and  seven  $15  to  $20,  while  one  received  a 
wage  of  $24,  and  one,  $25.  The  maximum  wages 
were  reported  by  a  longshoreman  and  a  marble 
cutter.  The  group  earning  $15  to  $20  included  a 
furniture  maker,  cabinet  maker,  worker  on  mirrors, 
presser  in  a  tailor  shop,  two  hod-carriers  each  of 
whom  received  $18,  and  a  bootblack.  The  four 
who  reported  wages  of  $  1 2  and  less  than  $  1 5  were 
a  fur  dresser,  worker  on  bags,  candy  maker,  and  a 
driver.  The  larger  group,  who  earned  $10  but 
less  than  $12,  included  a  wood-turner,  cooper, 
worker  on  belts,  worker  on  piano  strings,  employe 
in  a  wine  shop,  bartender,  hod-carrier,  porter,  and 
a  janitor.  The  lowest  paid  group  of  1 1  consisted 
of  a  translator  earning  $6.00,  a  mason,  worker  on 
suspenders,  bag  maker,  tailor,  employe  in  a  butcher 
shop,  day  laborer,  elevator  runner,  and  three  factory 
cleaners. 

The  figures  take  no  account  of  the  irregularity 
of  employment  which  is  characteristic  of  many  of 
the  occupations  listed.  To  ascertain  the  earn- 
ings of  the  men  who  had  "their  own  business"  was 
difficult,  and  the  results  very  doubtful.  Every- 
where in  our  visits,  however,  we  were  met  by  the 
same  story:  that  the  father  could  not  earn  enough 
the  year  round  to  support  the  family;  that  rent 
and  other  necessary  expenditures  were  growing 
constantly  larger;  that  the  family  could  not  live 
without  the  wages  of  the  daughters;  and  in  a  large 
number  of  cases  that  the  mothers  must  also  con- 
tribute to  the  income. 

76 


WAGES   AND   HOME    RESPONSIBILITIES 

Of  122  mothers  living  in  these  128  families,* 
76  contributed  to  the  family  income  by  direct 
earnings,  several  of  them  combining  two  or  more 
occupations.  Seventeen  of  these  worked  outside 
the  home.  Of  these  17,  nine  were  themselves 
flower  makers,  of  whom  eight  were  included  in  the 
group  interviewed;  one  was  an  embroiderer  earning 
$12  a  week;  two  finished  coats  or  suits  at  wages  of 
$4.00;  one  kept  a  day  nursery  receiving  $4.50;  one 
did  day's  work;  two  were  factory  cleaners  at  $6.00 
a  week;  and  one  was  an  umbrella  sewer,  earning 
$6.00.  Two  of  the  flower  makers  earned  $10, 
one  $6.00,  one  $7.00,  one  $8.00,  one  $9.00,  one  $11, 
one  $12,  and  one  $18.  The  work  done  by  the 
mothers  at  home  included  janitor  service  in  10 
families,  keeping  boarders  and  lodgers  in  1 1  house- 
holds, and  home  manufacture  (of  flowers,  feathers, 
embroidery,  belts,  and  corset  covers)  in  50. 

Not  only  the  mothers  but  many  of  the  sisters  of 
flower  makers  and  other  women  relatives  living  in 
these  households  were  also  wage-earners  contribut- 
ing to  the  family  support.  They  represented  a  vari- 
ety of  occupations.  They  were  employed  in  "  finish- 
ing" cloaks,  underwear,  corset  covers,  and  men's 
vests;  in  operating  on  shirtwaists,  underwear,  and 
veils;  in  dressmaking;  in  the  manufacture  of  men's 
caps,  belts,  paper  boxes,  envelopes,  feather  dusters, 
and  fancy  feathers  for  hats;  examining  sweaters 
and  petticoats;  in  making  buttonholes,  embroider- 

*  In  five  cases,  the  mother  was  dead,  and  in  one  she  was  not  living 
at  home. 

77 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

ing  by  hand,  and  in  millinery ;  in  mending  goods  in  a 
coat  and  apron  supply  house;  in  stock  work,  book- 
keeping, and  saleswork.  They  numbered  52  in 
all.  Of  these  the  wages  of  37  were  ascertained. 
Six  received  less  than  $5.00,  12  received  $5.00  to 
$7.00,  14  received  $7.00  to  $10,  three  $10  to  $12, 
one  $12  to  $15,  and  one  $16. 

A  count  of  the  total  number  of  contributors  to 
the  family  income,  including  fathers,  mothers, 
sisters  and  brothers,  in  addition  to  flower  makers, 
shows  that  in  only  two  households  were  flower 
makers  the  only  wage-earners.  Not  counting 
home  workers,  33  households  reported  two  wage- 
earners,  47  three,  27  four,  and  17  five,  while  one 
had  as  many  as  six  and  one  seven,  all  uniting  in 
the  family  support.  In  10  households  no  men 
contributed;  the  families  were  supported  entirely 
by  women.  In  57  families  no  women  except  the 
flower  makers  were  at  work  outside  the  home;  but 
in  the  majority  of  families  three  or  four  wage- 
earners  shared  the  burden  of  supporting  the  house- 
hold. 

The  households  were  large.  In  59  there  were 
seven  or  more  members.  In  the  majority  of  house- 
holds there  were  dependent  children  under  four- 
teen, a  fact  which  bears  directly  on  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  flower  makers  in  aiding  in  the 
family  support,  besides  emphasizing  the  fact  that 
the  need  for  the  mother's  employment  outside  the 
home  constitutes  a  grave  social  problem. 

In  46,  or  more  than  one-third  of  the  128  families, 
78 


WAGES   AND   HOME    RESPONSIBILITIES 

were  children  under  six  years  of  age,  while  in  the 
remaining  82,  there  was  no  child  under  six.  In 
the  majority  of  families,  then,  the  children  had 
passed  beyond  babyhood.  In  86,  or  about  two- 
thirds,  were  children  of  school  age,  six  to  fourteen 
years  old.  Older  sisters  or  brothers  had  gone  to 
work,  while  the  younger  ones  were  still  in  school. 
This  is  a  different  type  of  family  from  that  some- 
times chosen  as  "normal"  in  investigations  of  the 
standard  of  living;  namely,  one  in  which  the  father 
is  a  wage-earner  and  the  children  are  babies  or  of 
school  age.  Among  these  flower  makers  the  time  has 
come  for  the  children  to  become  wage-earners  and 
the  family  begins  to  break.  The  father  is  dead,  or 
in  many  cases  he  is  no  longer  looked  to  as  the  main 
support.  He  is  "too  old  to  work,"  or  his  work 
grows  more  and  more  irregular  as  he  gives  place  to 
young  boys  who  are  crowding  into  the  labor  market, 
his  own  sons  among  them.  The  family  must  now 
look  for  an  income  made  up  of  small  sums  con- 
tributed by  the  mother,  and  by  the  boys  and  girls 
who  have  passed  the  legal  age  required  before  they 
can  get  their  working  papers. 

These  facts  should  be  carefully  considered  in 
any  discussion  of  the  wages  of  working  girls  in 
any  trade.  A  critical  period  is  reached  in  wage- 
earners'  households  when  the  older  members  of  the 
family  are  beginning  to  be  burdens  and  the  younger 
are  not  yet  strongly  enough  established  economic- 
ally to  meet  new  responsibilities.  At  such  a  time 
the  children  go  into  the  labor  market  handicapped, 

79 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

instead  of  being  free  to  choose  the  job  which  offers 
the  best  training  and  promises  the  happiest  and 
most  profitable  future,  regardless  of  immediate 
returns.  No  one  who  wishes  to  understand  the 
causes  of  poverty  can  safely  neglect  consideration 
of  the  wages  of  working  girls  who  "live  at  home," 
and  whose  low  wages,  because  they  do  so,  are  re- 
garded complacently  by  men  and  women  who  lack 
a  comprehending  knowledge  of  the  responsibil- 
ities of  daughters  in  such  homes.  In  the  flower 
trade  the  typical  flower  maker  is  a  member  of  just 
such  a  breaking  family. 

The  stories  told  by  some  of  the  flower  makers 
show  more  vividly  than  statistics  what  their  home 
responsibilities  are.  One  girl,  eighteen  years  old, 
had  worked  four  years  in  paper  box  factories  but 
after  an  injury  to  her  finger  from  an  unguarded 
machine  she  applied  at  a  flower  shop  for  a  job  as 
learner  at  $4.00  a  week.  After  six  months  this 
sum  was  increased  to  $4.50.  In  May,  when  inter- 
viewed, the  dull  season  had  begun  and  until  Sep- 
tember she  expected  to  work  only  three  days  a 
week,  earning  $2.25.  "That  isn't  enough  to  pay 
for  what  I  eat,"  she  said.  She  was  hoping  for  a 
second  increase  of  50  cents  a  week  in  September, 
and  she  figured  that  if  the  family  could  hold  out 
until  autumn  she  could  work  overtime  four  nights 
a  week,  beginning  in  November,  and  in  addition 
could  bring  work  home  at  night,  from  which  she 
and  her  mother,  her  sister,  and  a  brother  twelve 
years  old  could  earn  together  $3.00  a  week.     But 

80 


Goffering  and  Pressing 


Arranging  Flowers  and  Leaves 


WAGES   AND   HOME    RESPONSIBILITIES 

she  feared  that  she  would  be  obliged  to  look  im- 
mediately for  work  in  another  trade  and  miss  that 
50  cents  raise  and  that  opportunity  to  work  over- 
time in  the  shop,  and  later  make  flowers  at  night. 
Her  father  had  deserted  the  family.  Her  brother, 
who  had  been  a  driver  for  a  woolen  goods  house, 
had  been  out  of  work  three  months,  having  lost 
his  job  because  of  a  strike.  A  younger  sister  was 
a  learner  in  an  ostrich  feather  shop,  earning  $3.50. 
That  sum  plus  the  flower  maker's  $2.25  was  at  the 
moment  the  family  income  to  support  the  mother, 
two  sons,  and  two  daughters.,  "If  my  brother 
don't  get  work,"  said  the  flower  maker,  "  I'll  have 
to  leave  the  flower  trade.  I've  worked  in  a  lot  of 
different  places,  and  I've  been  out  of  work  a  lot, 
too.  And  every  time  I  change,  it's  always  the 
same  money  or  less,  never  a  raise.  It  was  all 
right  in  winter  when  I  was  making  more  than  $6.00 
a  week  with  overtime,  but  what's  $2.00?  And 
everything  has  gone  up  so.  We  can't  eat  meat 
any  more, — only  on  Sundays." 

A  young  married  woman,  not  quite  twenty-five 
years  old,  was  obliged  to  work  sometimes  in  the 
shop  and  sometimes  at  home  to  supplement  her 
husband's  earnings.  She  had  been  married  when 
she  was  sixteen  years  old,  and  had  four  children,  a 
girl  of  seven  years,  another  of  five  years,  a  boy  of 
three,  and  baby  of  nine  months.  Her  husband  was  a 
driver  employed  by  a  dry  goods  store,  but  he  had 
been  injured  and  had  had  an  operation  performed. 
At  best  his  earnings  were  $12  a  week  and  for  two 

81 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 

months  he  had  been  out  of  work.  When  he  was 
employed  the  wife  helped  by  home  work.  She 
said,  however,  that  only  cheap  work  is  given  to 
home  workers.  "  If  you  work  night  and  day  you  are 
lucky  if  you  get  $9.00,  or  even  $6.00;  $3.00  is  more 
like  it."  Whenever  her  husband  was  out  of  work 
she  was  obliged  to  leave  her  babies  in  the  care  of 
her  mother  and  work  in  a  shop  nine  hours  a  day. 
As  she  was  an  expert  flower  maker,  however,  she 
could  earn  $10  or  $12  in  a  week,  and  thus  equal  her 
husband 'swages. 

Another  flower  maker,  sixteen  years  old,  was  one 
of  four  sisters  who  supported  the  family  by  adding 
together  the  contents  of  four  thin  pay  envelopes. 
The  father  had  been  a  helpless  paralytic  a  year  and 
a  half  before  his  death.  There  was  a  young  broth- 
er twelve  years  old.  The  mother  did  the  house- 
work. The  flower  maker  earned  $4.50.  The  oldest 
sister,  aged  twenty-two,  an  examiner  in  a  skirt 
factory,  earned  $5.00.  A  sister  aged  eighteen  did 
office  work,  earning  $6.00.  The  youngest  girl, 
aged  fifteen,  was  learning  the  flower  trade  at  a 
wage  of  $3.50.  Thus  $19  was  the  total  weekly  in- 
come for  the  support  of  six  persons,  and  any  slack 
season  in  the  flower  trade  was  likely  to  reduce  this 
weekly  sum  to  $  1 1 .  In  the  summer  the  two  flower 
makers  worked  on  feathers,  but  during  the  previous 
twelve  months  the  older  had  been  laid  off  two 
weeks  at  Christmas  time  and  three  weeks  in  June 
between  the  feather  and  flower  season,  and  the 
younger  sister  had  lost  four  weeks  in  June  for  the 

82 


WAGES   AND   HOME    RESPONSIBILITIES 

same  reason.  They  lived  in  three  rooms  for  which 
they  paid  a  rent  of  $  1 5  a  month.  "  We  must  crowd 
together,"  they  said,  "because  we  don't  make 
much." 

This  overcrowding  is  typical  of  flower  makers' 
families.  By  far  the  largest  number,  98,  lived  in 
threeorfour  rooms.  Theextremes  were  two  families 
each  of  whom  had  only  one  room,  and  eight  who 
had  six-room  flats.*  The  figures  indicating  the 
number  of  persons  per  room  are,  however,  a  more 
significant  index  of  the  standard  of  living.  This 
does  not  mean  the  number  per  bedroom,  but  the 
number  per  room  including  the  kitchen,  and  any 
such  unusual  luxury  as  a  parlor. 

In  studies  of  standards  of  living  it  has  been 
generally  agreed  that  households  with  an  average 
of  more  than  one  and  one-half  persons  per  room 
are  abnormally  crowded.  Of  the  128  families  of 
flower  makers,  but  47,  or  slightly  more  than  a  third, 
would  be  classed  as  normal,  having  this  amount  of 
space  or  more;  while  71  of  the  1 18  questioned  on 
this  point  were  overcrowded,  20  being  classed  in 
the  group  having  "  more  than  one  and  one-half  and 
less  than  two  persons"  to  a  room,  44  having  "two 
persons  and  less  than  three"  to  a  room,  and  six 
having  "three  and  less  than  four."  One  family 
crowded  seven  persons  into  one  room.  Such 
overcrowding  is  a  convincing  sign  of  an  inadequate 
standard  of  living  with  its  usual  disastrous  effects 

♦Five  had  apartments  of  two  rooms  each,  six  of  five  rooms, 
and  in  nine  cases  the  number  of  rooms  was  not  recorded. 

83 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

on  the  welfare  of  the  members  of  the  family.    The 
rent  paid  for  this  space  appears  in  Table  19. 


TABLE    19. — MONTHLY    RENT   PAID    BY    FAMILIES   OF 

WOMEN    EMPLOYED  IN   ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER 

MAKING* 


Monthly  rent 

Families  paying  each 
specified  rent 

Less  than  $10 
1 10  and  under  $12 
$12  and  under  $14 
$14  and  under  $16 
$16  and  under  $18 
$18  and  under  $20 
$20  and  under  $25 
$25  and  over   . 

6 
11 
18 
21 

1 

10 
1 

Total 

94 

aOf  128  families  investigated,  23  did  not  supply  information,  six 
received  free  rent  for  janitor  service,  and  five  owned  or  leased  a  build- 
ing or  had  rooms  in  connection  with  a  store. 

Of  the  94  families  that  were  paying  rent,  58 
paid  amounts  varying  from  $12  to  $18  a  month. 
The  figures,  however,  show  much  variety,  ranging 
from  $8.50  to  $27.  As  rent  is  usually  the  one 
item  which  must  be  paid  monthly  in  so  large  a 
lump  sum,  it  is  the  cause  of  much  anxiety  in  many 
of  these  households,  especially  in  those  whose  income 
is  so  likely  to  shrink  in  dull  seasons. 

The  contribution  of  girls  to  their  families  is  not 
limited  to  their  wages,  for  in  the  evenings  they  are 
obliged  to  help  with  the  housework,  to  sew,  and  to 
wash  their  clothes.     "Men  don't  have  to  work  as 

84 


WAGES   AND    HOME    RESPONSIBILITIES 

hard  as  women,"  said  a  married  woman  who  after 
a  nine-hour  day  in  a  shop  makes  her  children's 
dresses  at  home  at  night.  Two  young  Russian 
flower  makers,  refugees  from  Odessa,  whose  mother 
was  dead,  did  almost  all  the  housework  in  the 
evening  for  a  household  of  six,  including  their 
father,  who  was  a  painter,  their  grandmother,  a 
younger  sister  of  school  age,  and  a  boarder.  In 
Russia,  they  said,  they  were  not'  accustomed  to 
such  hard  work.  Their  father  had  had  a  grocery 
business  and  they  had  owned  their  home  in 
Odessa.  During  the  "revolution"  they  became 
refugees,  and  hid  for  two  weeks  in  a  cellar.  They 
sold  their  home  for  half  its  value  and  fled  to 
America.  Here  the  mother  died.  She  had  been 
greatly  distressed  that  her  girls  should  go  out  to 
work  and  that  there  should  be  no  money  to  send 
the  boy  to  a  dental  school.  In  spite  of  the  house- 
work at  night  one  of  the  sisters  had  taken  a  course 
in  a  public  evening  school.  The  other  has  always 
wished  to  go,  but  for  the  first  two  years  after 
reaching  America  she  brought  flowers  or  feathers 
home  from  the  factory  to  work  on  at  night,  and 
since  her  mother's  death,  washing  clothes,  cooking, 
and  cleaning  have  filled  her  evenings. 

It  is  by  no  means  unusual  to  find  the  girls  in  the 
family  leaving  school  to  go  to  work  in  order  to  give 
their  brothers  a  chance  to  have  a  better  education. 
One  Italian  girl,  now  earning  |io  a  week  in  busy 
season  as  a  rose  maker,  left  school  and  began  to 
learn  the  flower  trade  six  years  ago  at  the  age  of 

85 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

thirteen.  Her  mother  made  flowers  at  home.  In 
supporting  the  family  these  two  women  were  co- 
workers with  the  father,  a  cutter  and  colorer  in  a 
flower  factory.  There  were  two  brothers  neither 
of  whom  had  ever  earned  money  regularly.  One 
of  them,  a  boy  of  sixteen,  was  in  the  second  year 
of  high  school,  hoping  later  to  go  through  a  medical 
school.  The  older  brother. had  just  obtained  his 
M.  D.  degree.  His  education  had  been  a  heavy 
tax  on  the  family.  His  sister  said  that  during 
those  years  while  he  was  in  the  medical  school,  she 
had  brought  home  flowers  from  the  shop  at  night 
and  had  worked  sometimes  until  four  or  five  o'clock 
in  the  morning.  "When  he  graduated,"  she  said, 
"  I  cried  all  day  and  was  as  happy  as  though  I  had 
graduated  myself.  I  often  say  to  my  mother  that 
we  treat  my  brother  as  if  he  were  a  king, — but  I 
can't  help  it." 

In  the  same  spirit  the  oldest  daughter  in  a  Rus- 
sian family  left  normal  school  after  the  second  year 
in  order  that  her  elder  brother  might  attend  col- 
lege. Her  father  was  a  tailor,  Two  younger 
children  were  in  school.  She  explained  that  she 
wanted  to  go  back  to  normal  college,  but  for  her 
brother  a  college  education  was  "a  matter  of  a  life 
position,"  while  for  her  it  was  not. 

Practically  all  these  flower  makers  who  live  at 

'  home  turn  their  entire  earnings  into  the  family 

purse.    The  mother  or  the  head  of  the  household 

then  uses  it  for  living  expenses,  giving  the  girls  the 

money  which  they  must  have  for  carfare  and 

86 


WAGES   AND   HOME    RESPONSIBILITIES 

lunches.  Rent  is  the  first  item  to  be  paid.  The 
remainder  is  stretched  as  far  as  possible  over  food, 
clothing,  insurance,  and  other  important  items, 
and  an  occasional  expenditure  for  a  trip  to  Coney 
Island  or  a  ticket  to  a  moving  picture  show.  We 
found  no  flower  maker  living  at  home  who  did  not 
give  the  bulk  of  her  earnings  to  the  household.  I n 
other  words,  we  found  no  "pin-money  workers." 
Low  wages  paid  to  these  women  who  live  at  home 
have  far  more  serious  consequences  for  the  com- 
munity than  the  loss  of  the  finery  for  which  work- 
ing girls  are  sometimes  supposed  to  be  spending 
their  strength  in  factories. 

\  Judging  then  by  the  home  conditions  of  these 
flower  makers,  not  only  they  but  others  in  the  trade 
as  well  as  many  wage-earners'  families  in  other  in- 
dustries, are  forced  at  some  period  of  their  history 
to  depend  largely,  if  not  entirely,  upon  the  earnings 
of  women.  These  families  may  be  poverty  strick- 
en for  no  other  reason  than  that  their  oldest  chil- 
dren happen  to  be  daughters  rather  than  sons. 
Many  signs  of  economic  pressure  have  thus  been 
noted  in  the  group  of  flower  makers  whose  home 
conditions  we  have  been  studying:  fathers  unable 
to  contribute  enough  to  support  their  families, 
mothers  forced  to  earn  wages,  young  girls  obliged 
to  go  to  work  as  early  as  possible  to  help  in  the  sup- 
port of  younger  brothers  and  sisters,  and  the  family 
income  still  too  small  to  provide  the  minimum 
space  required  for  wholesome  living. 
The  flower  maker's  income,  like  that  of  workers 
87 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

in  many  other  trades,  is, subject  to  a  variety  of 
influences  beyond  her  control. 

First,  the  processes  of  work  are  not  uniform  but 
vary  with  the  style  of  flower.  Each  time  a  flower 
of  new  design  is  ordered  the  labor  cost  must  be  de- 
termined, and  each  new  adjustment  of  that  sort 
gives  the  employer  an  opportunity  to  shave  off  the 
wages.  He  can  see  to  it  that  variations  in  wages 
shall  have  a  downward  rather  than  an  upward 
tendency.  The  more  serious  the  girl's  home  re- 
sponsibilities the  less  able  will  she  be  to  resist  these 
small  reductions. 

Second,  as  has  been  indicated,  each  girl  makes 
her  own  labor  bargain,  and  her  knowledge  of  other 
girls'  earnings  in  her  own  shop  or  elsewhere,  de- 
pends on  chance  conversations.  Here  again  the 
employer  has  the  advantage  over  her. 

Third,  as  will  be  shown  later,  the  shop  worker 
must  reckon  always  with  the  home  workers'  low 
earnings,  for  in  the  home-work  system  the  manu- 
facturer has  another  chance  to  push  wages  down- 
ward. "  Home  workers  don't  make  so  much  fuss 
about  the  price,"  said  one. 

Fourth,  different  nationalities  of  the  workers 
produce  different  home  standards  and  thus  prevent 
a  demand  for  a  uniform  minimum  living  wage. 

Fifth,  the  busy  seasons  in  this  industry  are  vari- 
able; they  may  begin  at  any  time,  according  to 
the  vagaries  of  fashion.  This  loss  of  time  means 
loss  of  income.  It  means  also  that  for  several 
months  each  year  the  number  of  flower  makers  in 


WAGES   AND   HOME    RESPONSIBILITIES 

New  York  is  far  in  excess  of  the  demand  for  their 
work.  Going  from  shop  to  shop  in  search  of  a  job 
they  then  begin  to  underbid  each  other. 

To  list  these  factors  influencing  wages  is  easier 
than  to  measure  them,  for  uncertainty  is  their 
characteristic  and  therein  lies  the  kernel  of  the  wage 
problem  in  the  flower  trade.  The  vital  phases  of 
the  conditions  of  work  are  subject  to  forces  beyond 
the  flower  maker's  control.  She  has  no  voice  in 
their  deterirjinaliorujjrhe  difficulties  in  the  way 
oflmprovement  are  increased  by  the  fact  that  at 
least  half  the  workers  are  outside  the  shops  making 
flowers  at  home,  and  that  the  conditions  of  their 
employment,  to  be  described  in  the  following 
chapter,  are  such  as  to  be  a  menace  to  the  stand- 
ards of  work  and  wages  throughout  the  industry. 


89 


CHAPTER  V 
A  GROUP  OF  HOME  WORKERS 

MORE  than  half  the  trade  of  flower  making  in 
New  York  City  is  carried  on  in  tenement 
homes.  Of  the  1 14  firms  investigated  only 
24  stated  that  all  their  manufacturing  was  done 
in  the  workroom.  The  remaining  90  reported  that 
they  gave  out  part  of  their  work  to  home  workers. 
The  statements  of  76  of  these  firms  showed  that 
they  had  on  their  payrolls  between  2,200  and  2,400 
families  who  made  flowers  at  home.  They  had  no 
records  of  the  number  of  individual  workers  repre- 
sented in  these  families,  but  judging  by  our  inves- 
tigation of  a  group  of  home  workers  three  in  a 
family  is  a  low  average.  Thus,  according  to  the 
reports  of  employers,  home  workers  in  this  trade  in 
New  York  must  number  about  7,000  and  are  more 
numerous  than  employes  in  the  shops.* 

In  spite  of  the  evident  importance  of  home  work 
in  the  flower  trade  no  official  figures  are  published 
showing  its  location  or  its  extent.  Nor  is  this 
information  given  for  any  other  industry.     Both 

*  In  general  it  is  the  process  of  making  which  is  given  out.  Starch- 
ing, cutting,  and  dyeing,  and  the  final  process  of  branching  can  be 
more  conveniently  done  in  the  shops.  Forty-six  employers  stated 
that  they  gave  the  same  grade  of  work  to  home  workers  as  was  done 
inside;  forty  said  that  they  gave  out  a  cheaper  grade;  four  did  not 
report  on  the  subject. 

90 


A   GROUP   OF   HOME   WORKERS 

the  United  States  census  and  the  New  York  state 
department  of  labor  count  only  shop  employes. 
The  department  of  labor,  it  is  true,  publishes  a 
bulletin  of  the  addresses  of  tenements  licensed  for 
home  work,  but  this  bulletin  does  not  give  figures 
to  show  the  number  of  home  workers  living  in  these 
tenements  or  the  different  trades  in  which  they  are 
occupied.  The  department  does,  however,  possess 
a  list  of  the  names  and  addresses  of  individual 
home  workers,  since  the  law  requires  manufac- 
turers who  give  out  work  to  furnish  such  lists  to 
factory  inspectors  on  demand.  Nevertheless,  only 
37  flower  manufacturers  had  furnished  such  lists 
to  the  department  in  19 10,  and  the  total  number 
of  names  of  workers  on  record  was  but  47 1 .  These 
lists  we  were  allowed  under  certain  conditions  to 
tabulate,*  and  while  as  a  measure  of  the  home- 
work problem  the  figures  they  contained  were 
wholly  inadequate,  they  threw  some  light  upon 
the  location  of  factories  giving  out  home  work  and 
the  districts  in  which  the  out-workers  lived,  and 
confirmed  our  own  observations  on  these  points. 
None  of  these  flower  shops  were  north  of  Four- 
teenth Street.  Of  the  37  shops  which  had  filed  their 
lists  of  out-workers,  four  were  on  Broadway,  two 
east  of  it,  and  31  west  of  it, — all  south  of  Four- 
teenth Street.    The  31  located  on  the  lower  west 

*  The  tabulation  was  made  by  special  permission  of  the  commis- 
sioner of  labor  on  condition  that  no  individual  names  and  addresses 
of  workers  be  copied  and  that  the  tabulating  sheet  should  be  so 
planned  that  the  identity  of  individual  firms  should  be  known  only 
to  the  secretary  of  the  Committee  on  Women's  Work  and  one  as- 
sistant. 

91 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

side  furnished   391    of  the  471    names  of  home 
workers. 

Our  investigation  proved  to  us  that  the  neigh- 
borhood in  which  home  workers  in  the  flower 
trade  live  is  on  the  lower  west  side  of  the  city  in 
a  section  bounded  by  Christopher  Street  running 
diagonally  along  the  northwest,  Canal  Street  on 
the  south,  the  Hudson  River  on  the  west,  and  a 
broken  line  along  Sixth  Avenue,  West  Fourth 
Street,  and  West  Broadway  on  the  east.  This 
district  adjoins  that  in  which  the  flower  factories 
are  situated.  It  is  quite  natural  that  the  workers 
should  live  near  the  shops,  as  they  are  obliged  con- 
stantly to  carry  large  boxes  of  finished  flowers 
from  their  homes  to  the  factories,  and  their  earn- 
ings are  too  small  to  make  it  worth  their  while  to 
lose  time  and  spend  carfare  in  a  long  journey.  The 
lists  of  the  labor  department  showing  the  neigh- 
borhoods in  which  the  471  out-workers  lived  in- 
dicated substantial  agreement  with  our  statement 
of  boundaries.* 

In  the  neighborhood  whose  boundaries  have 
been  described  we  made  a  detailed  investigation 
of  1 10  families  of  home  workers.  It  seemed  un- 
necessary to  increase  the  number  to  much  more 
than  a  hundred,  as  this  group  of  households,  con- 
taining 371  members  who  worked  on  flowers,  was 

*Of  the  tota4  471,  12  of  the  addresses  were  outside  Manhattan, 
16  in  Manhattan  above  Fourteenth  Street,  while  409  lived  in  the 
neighborhood  bounded  on  the  north  by  Christopher  Street  from 
Hudson  River  east  to  Sixth  Avenue,  and  by  Canal  Street  on  the 
south.  The  remaining  34  lived  also  south  of  Fourteenth  Street  but 
not  within  the  boundaries  sketched. 

92 


'l 

K—i  •     ' 

.11 

I  1 

^M 

f     ^^^^^__ 

PIP"11 

.  &^*^ 

^ 

Mk, 

A  Home  Worker  Carrying  Violets  to  the  Factory  in 
School  Hours 


Delivering  Flowers  Made  at  Home 


A   GROUP   OF   HOME   WORKERS 

evidently  typical  of  a  larger  number.  They  had 
been  chosen  at  random,  and  the  information 
given  about  their  earnings,  their  work,  and  their 
homes  was  in  the  main  uniform  enough  to  indicate 
typical  rather  than  exceptional  conditions.  As  an 
added  proof  of  their  representative  character,  it 
was  discovered  in  the  final  tabulation  that  the 
flower  manufacturers  for  whom  these  families 
worked  numbered  36,  or  more  than  a  third  of  the 
total  number  of  90  firms  who  had  reported  to  our 
visitors  that  they  employed  home  workers. 

The  facts  about  these  families  of  flower  makers 
are  significant  not  only  as  part  of  a  study  of 
women's  work  in  this  industry,  but  as  a  contribu- 
tion toward  the  discussion  of  the  home-work  sys- 
tem, which  prevails  not  only  in  the  flower  trade 
but  in  the  manufacture  of  men's  clothing,  neck- 
wear, millinery,  passementerie,  underwear,  wom- 
en's and  children's  dresses,  and  a  long  list  of 
other  occupations.  This  form  of  manufacture  has 
become  a  most  threatening  aspect  of  the  sweating 
system.  In  it  the  labor  of  young  children  is  util- 
ized, and  advantage  is  taken  of  the  urgent  need 
of  their  mothers  to  earn  money  without  leaving 
their  homes  and  their  children.  Pressed  by  this 
need  they  have  become,  in  the  words  of  an  English 
report  on  home  work,  "cheap  and  docile"  workers. 
To  the  buyer  and  the  general  public  goods  manu- 
factured in  these  crowded  tenement  homes  may 
carry  disease  not  recognized  as  the  result  of  the 
home-work  system.     But  even  more  threatening 

93 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

is  the  effect  on  the  standards  of  industry,  the  low- 
ering of  the  prevailing  rates  of  wages  paid  in  the 
shops.  To  discover  conditions  among  home  work- 
ers in  the  flower  trade  is  to  secure  evidence  which 
should  help  the  community  to  get  rid  of  the  evils 
of  a  system  which  is  undermining  the  standards 
in  the  most  important  trades  in  which  women  are 
employed  in  New  York. 

Four  large  questions  are  pertinent.  Who  are 
the  workers  making  flowers  at  home?  How  much 
do  they  earn?  In  what  type  of  family  are  they 
found?  Is  the  system  good  for  the  workers,  the 
trade,  and  the  community? 

These  questions  were  answered  for  the  flower 
trade  by  interviewing  family  after  family,  and 
then  gathering  together  in  statistical  tables  the 
information  which  they  gave.  Perhaps,  then,  the 
clearest  way  to  present  the  results  will  be  to  follow 
the  method  by  which  they  were  secured;  that  is,  to 
describe  a  number  of  families  whose  circumstances 
were  representative  of  the  group,  and  then  to  fol- 
low this  description  with  statistics  giving  the  com- 
posite picture  of  conditions  as  we  found  them  in 
this  phase  of  the  industry. 

In  a  tenement  on  Macdougal  Street  lives  a  fam- 
ily of  seven — grandmother,  father,  mother,  and 
four  children  aged  four  years,  three  years,  two 
years,  and  one  month  respectively.  All  except- 
ing the  father  and  the  two  babies  make  violets. 
The  three-year-old  girl  picks  apart  the  petals;  her 
sister,  aged  four  years,  separates  the  stems,  dip- 

94 


A    GROUP   OF   HOME    WORKERS 

ping  an  end  of  each  into  paste  spread  on  a  piece 
of  board  on  the  kitchen  table;  and  the  mother 
and  grandmother  slip  the  petals  up  the  stems. 

"We  all  must  work  if  we  want  to  earn  any- 
thing," said  the  mother.  They  are  paid  10  cents 
for  a  gross,  144  flowers,  and  if  they  work  steadily 
from  8  or  9  o'clock  in  the  morning  until  7  or  8 
at  night,  they  may  make  12  gross,  $1.20.  In  the 
busy  season  their  combined  earnings  are  usually 
I7.00  a  week.  During  five  months,  from  April  to 
October,  they  have  no  work.  They  live  in  three 
rooms  for  which  they  pay  $10  a  month.  The 
kitchen,  which  is  used  as  a  workroom,  is  lighted 
only  by  a  window  into  an  adjoining  room.  The 
father  is  a  porter.  Both  he  and  his  wife  were  born 
in  Italy  but  came  to  New  York  when  they  were 
children.  The  wife  when  a  child,  before  she  was 
able  to  work  in  a  factory,  made  flowers  at  home. 
Later  she  worked  in  a  candy  factory.  "That's 
better  than  making  flowers,"  she  said,  "but  we 
can't  go  out  to  work  after  we're  married." 

Another  family  of  five — mother,  father,  and  three 
children — lived  in  two  rooms  nearby  on  Sullivan 
Street;  rent,  $10.  The  father  was  a  bootblack 
earning  $3.00  to  $4.00  a  week.  In  the  previous 
month  they  had  paid  only  half  of  the  rent.  The 
mother  was  born  in  New  York,  but  her  parents 
were  Italian.  She  had  attended  a  public  school 
and  then  found  work  in  a  shop  where  veils  were 
made.  After  her  marriage  she  worked  at  home 
making  flowers.     When  visited,  she  was  working 

95 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

on  yellow  muslin  roses  for  which  she  was  paid  25 
cents  a  gross.  There  were  five  petals  of  different 
shapes,  and  each  must  be  put  into  its  right  place. 
The  first  one  was  twisted  around  the  "pep"  to 
make  the  bud.  Then  paste  was  smeared  upon 
another  petal  which  was  slipped  up  the  wire  stem. 
Two  others  were  pasted  on  and  then  the  tube  stem 
slipped  over  the  wire,  and  the  flower  hung  on  a 
line  above  the  kitchen  table  to  dry.  With  the 
help  of  the  mother-in-law,  who  lived  next  door, 
and  a  small  son  aged  nine  years,  who  worked  after 
school,  it  was  possible  to  make  two  gross,  288  roses 
a  day,  for  which  they  received  50  cents,  or  about 
$3.00  in  a  week.  During  four  or  five  months  in 
the  summer  they  had  no  work. 

"Making  flowers  at  home  is  poor  work,  espe- 
cially if  you  have  only  a  few  children  to  help  you/' 
was  the  comment  of  a  worker  in  a  family  whose 
combined  weekly  earnings  from  home  work  were 
never  more  than  $4.00.  The  father  and  mother 
are  Genoese  Italians.  The  children,  aged  thirteen, 
twelve,  seven,  and  five,  were  all  born  in  New  York. 
They  go  to  school  and  all  work  on  flowers  after 
school  hours  until  as  late  as  10  o'clock  at  night. 
They  make  poppies,  pasting  on  two  petals,  one 
silk  and  one  muslin,  and  inserting  the  pistil  into 
the  stems  which  have  been  branched  in  the  fac- 
tory. The  price  is  6  cents  a  gross  and  "  if  we  work 
all  day  and  all  night  too,"  the  mother  said,  "we 
can  make  10  gross,"  1,440  separate  flowers,  for 
which  they  receive  60  cents.     "The  girls  in  the 

96 


A   GROUP   OF    HOME   WORKERS 

shop  wouldn't  work  on  such  cheap  flowers,  but  they 
don't  give  out  the  fine  roses."  The  father  is  a 
hod-carrier,  earning  $3.00  a  day,  but  working  usu- 
ally less  than  half  the  year.  They  have  a  woman 
boarder  who  works  in  a  factory.  These  seven 
persons  live  in  three  rooms  for  which  the  rent  is  $1 5 
a  month. 

In  another  tenement  nearby  is  a  young  married 
woman  who,  working  alone  at  home,  can  earn  the 
exceptional  wage  of  from  $8.00  to  $12  in  a  week. 
She  is  a  skilled  brancher  and  represents  the  experi-  I 
enced  worker  who  has  learned  the  trade  in  the  shop, 
an  unusual  type  among  home  workers.  She  had 
made  flowers  for  fifteen  years  before  her  marriage. 
Her  wages  from  home  work  usually  equal  those 
of  her  husband,  who  is  a  porter  in  a  saloon.  Her 
mother-in-law  does  the  housework  and  takes  care 
of  the  eleven-months-old  baby,  thus  leaving  the 
mother  free  to  work  without  interruption.  The 
flowers  given  her  are  made  abroad  and  branched 
or  bunched  here.  Manufacturers  usually  do  not 
give  out  such  work  unless  they  are  sure  that  they 
can  trust  the  worker's  skill.  In  a  day  she  can 
branch  about  two  gross  of  the  kind  upon  which 
she  was  engaged  at  the  date  of  our  visit.  "  But 
it's  all  according  to  the  work,"  she  said.  "Some- 
times I  can  make  $1 .50  and  sometimes  $3.00  a  day. 
You  can't  count  home  work  by  the  day,  for  a  day 
is  really  two  days  sometimes,  because  people 
often  work  half  the  night.  When  the  boss  asks 
me  how  many  flowers  I  can  make  in  a  day  I  say 

97 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

I  cannot  tell,  but  I  know  how  many  I  can  do  in  an 
hour.  Some  girls  are  so  foolish.  I've  heard  them 
praising  themselves  and  telling  the  boss  that  they 
did  the  work  in  a  day.  They're  ashamed  to  say 
they  worked  in  the  night  too.  But  they  only  hurt 
themselves,  for  the  boss  says  if  they  earn  that 
much  in  a  day  he  can  cut  the  price/'  In  the  sum- 
mer this  woman  works  on  feathers,  which  her 
employers  give  her  in  order  not  to  lose  track  of  so 
skilled  a  home  worker  during  the  dull  season  of  the 
flower  trade. 

For  two  reasons,  this  woman  thinks  the  flower 
trade  a  good  one.  The  girls  in  the  shop  can  make 
extra  money  by  taking  work  home  at  night,  and 
they  can  make  flowers  at  home  after  they  are 
married.  From  a  larger  point  of  view,  however, 
these  two  reasons  might  be  considered  unfortunate 
rather  than  desirable  for  the  worker  or  the  trade. 
This  woman's  story  is  emphasized  because  by 
contrast  it  shows  the  lack  of  skill  and  the  excess- 
ively low  earnings  in  other  households.  Even  in 
her  case,  the  variety  in  earnings  should  be  noted, 
and  the  fact  that  her  skill  would  command  higher 
pay  per  hour  in  the  shop  than  at  home. 

In  the  district  known  as  Greenwich  Village  is  an 
Italian  family  of  10 — father,  mother,  and  eight 
children — who,  through  home  work,  gain  but  the 
scantiest  supplement  to  their  regular  combined 
earnings  of  $16.50.  These  earnings  include  the 
$7.00  a  week  made  by  the  father  selling  lunches 
in  a  saloon,  $6.50  made  by  the  oldest  daughter 


A   GROUP   OF   HOME   WORKERS 

in  a  box  factory,  and  $3.00  earned  by  the  sixteen- 
year-old  son  as  a  "wagon  boy."  Four  children 
are  in  school  and  there  are  two  babies  at  home. 
Every  member  of  the  family  except  the  father  and 
two  babies  helps  to  make  flowers.  The  mother 
works  irregularly  during  the  day,  the  school  chil- 
dren after  school  hours,  and  the  box-maker  and 
wagon  boy  in  the  evening.  They  make  three- 
petaled  violets  at  7  cents  a  gross,  earning  a  total 
weekly  wage  of  $3.00.  They  live  in  three  rooms 
and  pay  $12.50  a  month. 

These  stories  are  not  chosen  because  of  startling 
features  but  because  they  give  a  fair  impression 
of  what  our  investigators  have  seen  in  many  other 
cases.  They  show  the  work  of  little  children;  the 
prolonged  hours  of  young  girls  after  the  day's 
labor  in  the  factory;  the  pressure  compelling  the 
mother  to  make  some  contribution  to  the  family 
income  even  when  her  husband  is  working;  the 
irregular  hours;  the  short  seasons;  the  scanty 
earnings  of  a  whole  group  of  home  workers;  the 
general  level  of  inefficiency  which  the  system 
tends  to  foster;  and  the  overcrowded  homes. 
Omitting  for  the  moment  any  discussion  of  dark, 
dirty  bedrooms  used  as  workplaces  of  flower  mak- 
ers ill  with  tuberculosis,  of  women  and  children 
afflicted  with  bad  cases  of  skin  disease  and  han- 
dling the  flowers  with  no  thought  of  the  possi- 
bility of  infection,  we  would  emphasize  rather  the 
economic  conditions  represented  by  the  home- 
work system,  testing  it  from  the  point  of  view  of  its 

99 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

efficiency  as  an  industrial  method,  the  return 
which  it  makes  to  the  Worker  for  her  labor,  and 
the  degree  in  which  it  measures  up  to  certain  rec- 
ognized standards  of  industry. 

First  among  these  standards,  recognized  in  New 
York  state  since  its  first  factory  act  was  passed  in 
1886,  is  the  prohibition  of  the  labor  of  little  chil- 
dren. No  child  under  fourteen  may  work  in  a 
factory  in  New  York  state  and  none  under  six- 
teen may  work  without  an  employment  certificate. 
Yet  when  an  artificial  flower  manufacturer  gives 
out  work  to  be  done  in  a  tenement  home,  the  spirit 
of  the  child  labor  law  breaks  down,  and  babies  of 
three  and  four  years  enter  the  employ  of  the  firm 
as  part  of  the  family  group. 

TABLE  20. — AGES  OF  HOME  WORKERS  IN  FAMILIES 
MAKING    ARTIFICIAL    FLOWERS   AT   HOME 


Age 

HOME  WORKERS  OF  THE  AGES 
SPECIFIED 

Number 

Per  cent 

Under  8  years 

8  years  and  under  14  years  . 
14  years  and  under  16  years 
16  years  and  over 

38 

IOI 

42 

190 

10.2 
27.2 
11. 3 
51-3 

Total 

371 

100. 0 

Table  20  and  the  accompanying  chart  show 
the  age  grouping  of  the  371  workers  who  made 
flowers  at  home  in  the  1 10  households  investi- 
gated.   Of  these  371  home  workers  nearly  half, 


100 


Mi  * 

Hi 

SSHtfiS 

m 

Jr. 

All  the  Family  Work 


Flower  Making  After  School 


A    GROUP   OF    HOME   WORKERS 

181,  were  children  under  sixteen  years  of  age. 
About  two  in  five,  1 39  in  all,  were  under  fourteen. 
Stated  in  greater  detail,  38  had  not  yet  reached 
their  eighth  birthday,  10 1  were  between  eight  and 
fourteen,  and  42  between  fourteen  and  sixteen. 

Children  under  8 — 
38  or  10.2% 


Adults  16  and 
over — 190  or 
51.3% 


ildren  14  and  under 
16— 42  or  11.3% 

Chart  III. — Ages    of   371    Home    Workers    in    1 10    Families 
Making  Artificial  Flowers  at  Home 

Nine  of  those  between  fourteen  and  sixteen,  were 
at  work  in  factories,  where  their  hours  of  labor  were 
limited  by  law  to  eight  in  a  day;  yet  in  the  evening, 
unprotected  by  law,  they  made  flowers  at  home. 
The  youngest  child  worker  was  eighteen  months 
old.  He  was  just  learning  to  pick  petals  apart  to 
make  them  ready  to  be  pasted  on  the  stem.  Less 
startling,  but  probably  more  serious  in  its  effect, 
was  the  labor  of  the  145  school  children  who 
worked  at  home  in  the  morning  before  school 
hours  and  again  in  the  afternoon  and  evening. 

101 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 


Questioning  the  effect  of  home  work  upon  the 
ability  of  the  child  to  keep  up  with  his  class  in 
school,  we  made  a  tabulation  of  the  school  grades 
and  the  ages  of  122  of  these  children.* 

TABLE  21. — AGES  AND  GRADES   IN  NEW  YORK  PUB- 
LIC   SCHOOLS    OF   CHILDREN    MAKING   ARTI- 
FICIAL     FLOWERS      AT      HOME      AND 
ALSO    ATTENDING   SCHOOL a 


Age 

CHILDREN  OF  EACH  SPECIFIED  AGE,  IN  GRADES 

I 

II 

in 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

Total 

5 
6 

7 

I 

3 
6 

5 

3 
7 

4 

2 
5 

2 
6 

3 

1 

4 
6 

8 

9 

9 

3 

1 

3 

1 1 

10 

4 

1 

3 

1 

12 

11 

4 
3 

4 

1 

15 

12 

6 

4 
5 

18 

13 

5 

4 

16 

14 

5 

2 

5 

21 

15 

2 

Total 

2 

21 

19 

18 

22 

18 

10 

5 

115 

Number 
over-age 

7 

9 

12 

•5 

9 

7 

59 

a  Of  the  145  children  in  the  households  investigated  who  were 
making  artificial  flowers  and  also  attending  school,  two,  who  were  seven 
years  of  age,  were  still  in  the  kindergarten,  five  were  in  special  classes 
and  23  did  not  supply  information. 

*  An  effort  was  made  to  secure  directly  from  the  schools  the  facts 
about  the  grades  and  ages  of  these  children,  but  it  proved  time- 
consuming  and  often  impossible,  largely  because  of  differences  in  spell- 
ing foreign  names.  One  principal  refused  the  information.  Never- 
theless, 5 1  of  the  122  cases  tabulated  were  verified  from  school  records, 
while  for  the  remainder  the  data  are  based  on  the  statements  of 
the  children  and  their  parents  or  brothers  and  sisters. 

102 


A   GROUP   OF   HOME   WORKERS 

More  than  half  the  number  were  above  the 
normal  age  for  the  grades  in  which  they  were  en- 
rolled. This  estimate  is  based  on  the  accepted 
standard  of  age  in  relation  to  grade  in  New  York 
City  schools.*  According  to  this  standard  the 
proportion  of  over-age  children  among  all  the 
school  children  of  New  York  is  30  per  cent.  That 
the  corresponding  proportion  among  a  group  of 
children  who  work  at  home  should  be  5 1  per  cent 
raises  important  questions  as  to  the  effect  of  home 
work  on  the  child.  That  these  children  cannot 
keep  up  as  they  should  in  their  school  work  is 
doubtless  due  both  to  the  direct  effect  of  work 
after  school  hours  and  to  the  indirect  influence  of 
home  work  in  lowering  the  family  standards  of 
comfort,  health,  and  cleanliness.  Absorbed  in 
work  the  mother  can  be  neither  a  vigilant  mother 
nor  a  careful  housekeeper. 

In  other  ways,  too,  the  home-work  system  in- 
jures children.  Work  in  the  crowded,  badly  ven- 
tilated rooms  (which  we  found  to  be  an  almost 
universal  condition  among  home  workers)  weak- 
ens them  physically  in  two  ways,  directly  by  low- 
ering  their   vitality,    and   indirectly   by   endan- 

*  First  grade,  6  years  and  under  8  years 
Second  grade,  7  years  and  under  9  years 
Third  grade,  8  years  and  under  10  years 
Fourth  grade,  9  years  and  under  1 1  years 
Fifth  grade,  10  years  and  under  12  years 
Sixth  grade,  1 1  years  and  under  13  years 
Seventh  grade,  12  years  and  under  14  years 
Eighth  grade,  13  years  and  under  15  years 
Tenth  Annual  Report  of  the  city  superintendent  of  schools,  New 
York,  1908,  p.  60. 

103 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

gering  their  health  through  depriving  them  of  the 
opportunity  to  spend  play  hours  out  of  doors. 
Furthermore,  by  demanding  continuous  and  mo- 
notonous attention,  whose  motive  is  not  the  normal 
one  of  interest  but  the  nervous  spur  of  financial 
necessity,  this  unskilled  work  in  the  home  is  likely 
to  retard  mental  development. 

The  home-work  system  also  offers  an  escape 
from  all  restriction  on  the  hours  of  work  of  young 
girls  and  women.  And,  gauged  by  the  most  im- 
portant of  all  tests, — the  wages  paid, — the  home- 
work system  in  the  flower  trade  does  not  measure 
up  even  to  the  prevailing  rate  of  earnings  in  flower 
shops.  It  cannot  even  be  said  that  there  is  a  stand- 
ard rate  of  wages  for  home  work,  so  greatly  do 
these  vary  from  season  to  season,  from  shop  to 
shop,  from  household  to  household. 

If  you  ask  an  employer  to  tell  you  the  wages 
which  he  pays  to  home  workers,  he  will  probably 
reply,  "What  they  earn.  It's  all  piece  work."  If 
you  prevail  upon  him  to  show  you  his  payroll,  with 
its  record  of  weekly  payments  to  one  family, 
amounting  to  $3.58,  $5.70,  $7.20,  or  even  $10,  and 
ask  him  how  manv  workers  there  were  in  each 
group,  he  will  tell  you  that  he  does  not  know.  If 
you  question  the  workers  as  to  earnings  you  will 
find  it  equally  difficult  to  secure  exact  information. 
Several  factors  enter  into  these  difficulties.  First, 
flowers  change  their  fashion  from  season  to  season. 
Not  only  the  style  but  the  material  determines 
the  price.    Therefore  you  cannot  record  a  fixed 

104 


A    GROUP    OF    HOME    WORKERS 

rate  per  gross  for  violets,  or  roses,  or  orchids,  or 
for  any  other  product  of  the  trade.  Second,  no 
limit  is  set  to  the  hours  of  labor,  and  no  two  days 
are  alike  in  the  amount  of  time  spent  in  making 
flowers.  Therefore  you  cannot  record  the  earn- 
ings per  hour.  Furthermore,  the  group  of  work- 
ers changes.  One  may  work,  as  she  says,  "stead- 
ily." Another  may  help  for  a  few  hours  one  day 
and  none  the  next.  Therefore  the  earnings  per 
capita  elude  investigation.  All  these  difficulties, 
of  course,  emphasize  a  condition  which  is  character- 
istic of  the  absence  of  organization  or  bargaining 
power  among  workers;  namely,  the  lack  of  a  stand- 
ard. 

Nevertheless,  the  difficulties  can  be  overcome  by 
recording  the  wages  or  range  of  earnings  usually 
received  by  the  family,  and  by  indicating  also 
the  number  of  workers  whose  combined  effort 
is  rewarded  by  such  a  wage.  In  Table  22  this  plan 
was  used,  and  no  attempt  was  made,  therefore,  to 
take  account  of  the  hours  of  labor  or  the  earnings 
of  individuals. 

Thus  more  than  half  (65)  of  the  family  groups 
earned  from  home  work  a  weekly  wage  of  less  than 
$5.00;  although  in  85  of  the  families  there  were 
two  or  more  home  workers.  The  average  weekly 
earnings  were  $4.92.*  The  tabulation  of  average 
earnings  classified  according  to  the  number  of 
workers  in  each  group  well  illustrates  the  chaotic 

*  According  to  those  reports  which  showed  a  definite  range  of  pay, 
the  average  of  the  minimum  earnings  was  $4.62;  the  average  of  the 
maximum,  $5.22. 

105 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 


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I06 


A    GROUP   OF   HOME   WORKERS 

nature  of  the  system.  The  earnings  seem  to  have 
no  consistent  relation  to  the  number  of  workers. 
If  now  we  analyze  the  group  of  workers,  we  have 
a  surprising  revelation  of  the  relation  of  the  work 
of  children  to  the  earning  power  of  the  family.  In 
76  families  children  under  sixteen  years  of  age  were 
at  work.  In  the  remaining  34  families  the  workers 
were  all  adults.  The  average  weekly  earnings  of 
the  families  in  which  children  were  employed  were 
$4.72.  The  average  weekly  earnings  of  the  fami- 
lies in  which  no  children  were  employed  were  $5.44. 
This  was  true,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the 
average  number  of  adult  workers  in  the  families 
where  child  workers  were  found  was  1.8,  while 
in  the  families  where  no  children  were  at  work  the 
average  number  of  adult  workers  was  1 .6.  To  draw 
definite  conclusions  of  universal  application  from 
these  figures  is,  of  course,  unwise;  but  at  least  they 
raise  the  question,  whether  the  presence  of  children 
does  not  actually  decrease  the  efficiency  of  a  group 
of  home  workers. 

The  difference  between  these  family  earnings 
and  the  wages  of  individual  shop  workers,  as  they 
were  described  in  the  preceding  chapter,  is  striking. 
The  average  for  the  group  of  shop  workers  whom 
we  investigated  was  $6.72.  For  the  girls  in  this 
group  who  were  sixteen  years  of  age  or  over,  the 
average  was  $7.24.  The  United  States  census  in 
1905  recorded  $6.20*  as  the  average  weekly  earnings 

*  United  States  Census.     Bulletin  93,  Earnings  of  Wage-Earners, 
Manufacturers,  p.  98.     1905. 

107 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

of  women  sixteen  years  of  age  and  over,  in  fac- 
tories manufacturing  flowers  and  feathers.  In 
April,  1907,*  an  inspector  of  the  New  York  state 
department  of  labor  who  collected  wage  statistics 
in  flower  shops,  by  tabulating  payrolls  in  a  repre- 
sentative group  of  establishments,  reported  that 
50  per  cent  of  the  women  received  less  than  $6.80, 
while  50  per  cent  earned  more.  These  statements 
were  all  based  on  individual  earnings,  while  the 
average  of  $4.92  recorded  for  our  group  of  home 
workers  represents  combined  earnings  for  an  aver- 
age group  of  more  than  three  workers  (371  workers 
in  1 10  families)  half  of  whom  were  more  than  six- 
teen years  old.  These  comparisons  indicate  a  scale 
of  remuneration  for  home  work  distinctly  lower 
than  in  the  shops. 

Furthermore,  these  wages  considered  with  refer- 
ence to  yearly  income  are  subject  to  great  reduc- 
tion because  of  the  long  slack  season  in  summer 
months. f  Over  two-thirds  of  the  families  (57  of 
84  investigated  on  this  point)  lost  from  three  to 
six  months  in  the  year.  For  these  family  groups 
the  average  weekly  wage  distributed  throughout 
the  year  would  be  from  25  to  50  per  cent  less  than 
the  wage  in  busy  season,  or  roughly,  would  range 

*  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor,  Bulletin  No.  33,  June, 
1907,  p.  151. 

t  The  gas  bill  is  another  item  of  reduction  of  earnings  to  be  con- 
sidered. It  varies  from  25  to  50  cents  a  week  in  the  busy  season 
when  the  family  group  work  until  late  at  night.  The  greater  part 
must  be  charged  to  home  work,  for  without  it  economy  in  light  would 
be  possible.  Then,  too,  it  is  because  of  low  wages  and  lack  of  sys- 
tem that  the  working  day  is  prolonged  into  the  night. 

108 


A   GROUP   OF    HOME   WORKERS 

from  $2.40  to  $3.70.*  This  amounts  approximately 
to  a  yearly  income  varying  from  $125  to  $190,  a 
wage  which  even  the  most  economical  would  de- 
clare to  be  far  less  than  a  living  income  for  one 
person,  whereas  it  actually  represents  the  com- 
bined earnings  of  all  the  home  workers  in  a  family. 
"No  cause  can  justify  a  wage  that  will  not  subsist 
the  worker,"  declares  a  writer  of  a  report  published 
by  the  United  States  department  of  labor  regard- 
ing the  work  of  women  and  children  in  Great 
Britain. f  Gauged  by  such  a  standard  the  home- 
work system  certainly  falls  far  short  of  a  just  wage 
scale. 

That  prices  in  home  work  not  only  vary  but 
tend  downward  rather  than  upward,  is  a  statement 
frequently  made.  Positive  evidence  could  be 
secured  only  by  a  comparison  of  present  and  past 
rates  duly  checked  up  by  facts  showing  the  com- 
parative purchasing  power  of  a  dollar  at  the  corre- 
sponding periods.  As  no  such  data  are  available 
the  opinions  and  the  experience  of  workers  on  this 
subject  are  interesting.  Their  own  words  are 
quoted  for  their  cumulative  value  as  first  hand 
testimony. 

"Prices  are  lower  than  they  used  to  be,"  said 
one  woman.     "They're  about  half.     I've  figured 

*  The  New  York  State  Labor  Department  in  1902  reported  $2.70 
as  the  average  wage  of  home  workers  in  the  artificial  flower  trade  al- 
lowing for  loss  of  time.  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor, 
second  annual  report,  1902.     Vol.  I,  p.  19. 

t  United  States  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor,  Bureau  of 
Labor,  Bulletin  No.  80.  Woman  and  Child  Wage-earners  in  Great 
Britain,  p.  39.     Washington,  Government  Printing  Office,  1909. 

109 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

it  out.  I  used  to  make  $12  a  week.  Now  I  can 
only  make  a  dollar  a  day."  One  woman  who  was 
pasting  stems  on  leaves  for  2  cents  a  gross  said  that 
the  price  five  years  ago  for  the  same  work  was  5 
cents  a  gross.  "  Some  people  take  work  cheap  and 
the  rest  of  us  are  forced  to  it.  Two  women  came 
to  our  shop  the  other  day  and  offered  to  make 
flowers  at  home  a  week  for  nothing  if  the  boss 
would  give  them  work."  "  Flowers  is  cheap  work 
now,"  said  another.  "The  boss  used  to  pay  much 
better.  But  there's  always  poorer  and  poorer 
people,  and  they'll  do  it  for  less.  They  have  a  lot 
of  children,  and  it  don't  take  them  long  to  make  a 
dollar.     So  they  do  it  for  less  than  us." 

Underlying  these  opinions  are  statements  of  the 
causes  which  influence  the  wages  of  home  workers. 
The  remarks  of  other  workers  give  further  testi- 
mony on  these  points.  "The  price  isn't  enough," 
said  a  violet  maker  who  received  6  cents  a  gross 
for  violets  of  three  petals,  one  velvet  and  two  silk. 
"  But  the  man  can't  pay  more.  If  you  don't  want 
to  take  it  he  says  there's  somebody  else  outside 
who  will.  There  are  too  many  peoples  waiting  for 
it."  "They  couldn't  get  any  girls  in  the  shops 
to  do  such  cheap  work,"  said  another.  "They 
couldn't  make  anything  on  it — maybe  $3.00  a 
week.  So  they  give  it  to  us,  because  we  can't  go 
out  to  the  shops.  I  t's  too  cheap  work  for  anybody 
but  us."  "We  make  nothing  on  these  flowers," 
said  a  married  woman  who  had  been  a  home  worker 
when  a  child.     "There  ought  to  be  a  strike  like  on 

no 


A    GROUP   OF   HOME   WORKERS 

shirtwaists.  The  other  day  the  boss  wanted  me  to 
do  some  violets,  five  pieces  and  reversing  them  too. 
He  offered  me  1 5  cents  a  gross.  I  said  I  wouldn't 
do  it  for  that  and  then  another  woman  beside  me 
took  them." 

That  necessity  makes  weak  bargainers  is  sug- 
gestively illustrated  by  classifying  earnings  from 
home  work  according  to  the  family  income  from 
other  sources.  The  group  of  families,  29  in  num- 
ber, whose  weekly  income  from  sources  other  than 
home  work  was  recorded  as  less  than  $12,  earned 
an  average  of  $4.48  a  week  by  making  flowers  at 
home.  The  37  households  whose  income  from 
other  sources  amounted  to  $12  or  more  averaged 
$4.74  from  home  work.  As  the  families  from  whom 
accurate  information  on  this  point  could  be  se- 
cured numbered  only  66,  conclusions  are  not  safe, 
but  the  group  considered  is  at  least  illustrative. 
Apparently  the  greater  the  need,  the  lower  the 
weekly  earnings  from  home  work.  The  larger  the 
income  from  other  sources,  the  larger  the  home 
workers'  wages.  These  figures  are  not  surprising, 
if  it  be  true  that  the  better  the  living  conditions, 
the  greater  will  be  the  vitality,  efficiency,  and  bar- 
gaining power  of  the  workers.  It  is  in  this  close 
connection  between  living  conditions  and  bargain- 
ing power  that  we  find  the  reason  for  regarding 
family  standards  as  an  essential  subject  of  inquiry 
in  a  study  of  the  home-work  system.  From  this 
point  of  view  it  would  appear  that  the  home  worker's 
hardships  are  due,  in  part  at  least,  to  low  wages 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

and  irregular  employment  in  the  occupations  in 
which  other  members  of  her  family  are  employed. 
Contrary  to  the  prevailing  impression  that  the 
typical  home  worker  is  a  widow  who  must  support 
her  family  unaided,  the  statistics  of  this  group 
show  that  in  98  of  the  no  households  the  father 
was  living,  and  that  in  87  he  contributed  to  the 
family  income.  In  25  cases  the  fathers  were  in 
so-called  "independent"  business,  and  in  61  other 
cases  they  were  wage-earners.  In  one  case  the 
work  was  not  stated.  In  four  cases  they  were 
temporarily  out  of  work.  The  weekly  earnings  of 
the  41  men  wage-earners  from  whom  definite  in- 
formation on  this  point  could  be  secured  indicate 
how  great  is  the  economic  pressure  which  forces 
the  wife  to  become  a  contributor  to  the  family 
income  even  through  such  unprofitable  employ- 
ment as  the  home-work  system  offers.  Of  these 
4 1 ,  32  earned  less  than  $  1 5  a  week,  1 7  falling  below 
$10.  At  best  then,  assuming  steady  work,  three- 
fourths  of  the  chief  breadwinners  of  the  household 
could  not  earn  $800  in  a  year  and  nearly  half  fell 
short  of  $520.  When  account  is  taken  of  the 
practically  inevitable  loss  of  earnings  through  ir- 
regularity of  employment,  still  further  deductions 
must  be  made  from  these  figures.  In  more  than 
half  the  cases  reporting  on  this  point,  work  was 
said  to  be  "not  steady."  The  occupations  of  86 
of  these  heads  of  households  are  shown  in  the  fol- 
lowing table. 


112 


'  J  ,  J 


'     >  ,'     '  • 


Child  Toilers  Who  Work  More  Regularly  than  Their  Father 


Carrying  Flowers  from  Home  to  Factory 


A   GROUP   OF   HOME   WORKERS 

TABLE  23. — OCCUPATIONS  OF   FATHERS  IN   FAMILIES 
DOING   HOME   WORK   ON    ARTIFICIAL   FLOWERS* 


Occupation  of  father 

Families  in  which  the 

occupation  of  the 

father  was  as 

specified 

In  independent  business 

Musician 

Barber         

Shoemaker 

Store  keeper,  saloon  keeper 

Coal  man,  ice  man,  "newsdealer,"  "ice 

cream  man,"  pushcart  man 
Bootblacks 

I 
i 
i 

2 

6 
»3 

Total 

24 

Wage-earners 

Factory  operatives  (candy,  tailoring,  hats, 

flowers,  feathers,  piano  strings)    . 
Porters,  elevator  men,  drivers,  watchman, 
bartender,  lunch  men,  waiters,  patrol- 
men, school  janitor,  ragman,  shoemaker 
Marble    cutter,    electrician,    mechanics, 
plasterer,  brass  cleaner,  plumber,  wood- 
Laborers  (hod  carriers,  dock  yard  hands, 
etc.)  

20 

19 

12 
10 

Total    .       .       .       .       . 
Home  work  on  flowers 

61 

1 

Grand  total 

86 

a  Of  87  families  in  which  the  father  was  working,  one  did  not  state 
kind  of  work. 


The  father  was  not  the  only  wage-earner  in  out- 
side occupations.  As  the  boys  and  girls  passed 
their  fourteenth  birthdays  they  too  went  out  to 
work.     In  these  1 10  households  were  700  persons, 

"3 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

and  of  these  226  were  wage-earners  in  occupations 
outside  the  home.* 

In  only  three  households  were  there  no  outside 
wage-earners,  and  these  families  could  not  sup- 
port themselves  by  home  work  and  so  were  mak- 
ing use  of  other  sources  of  income.  One  was  using 
up  savings  until  the  children  should  be  old  enough 
to  go  out  to  work.  The  second  was  said  to  have  a 
record  of  a  profitable  connection  with  crooks.  In 
the  third  case  the  other  source  of  income  could 
not  be  ascertained.  No  family  was  found  which 
was  entirely  supported  by  earnings  from  home 
work.  In  55  households  women  worked  outside 
the  home.  In  6 1 ,  or  nearly  three-fifths,  two,  three, 
or  even  four  or  more  outside  wage-earners  were 
contributing.  Counting  the  home  workers,  510 
contributed  to  the  support  of  the  family  either 
through  work  at  home  or  employment  elsewhere. 
Of  the  190  who  contributed  nothing  166  were 
children. 

That  home  work  does  not  prove  to  be  merely  a 
temporary  expedient  is  indicated  by  the  length  of 
time  that  these  family  groups  have  been  at  work. 
The  fact  that  only  eight  of  the  104  families  ques- 
tioned on  this  point  had  worked  at  home  less  than 
one  year  contradicts  the  theory  that  the  home-work 
system  does  not  hold  its  victims  very  long.  Seven- 
teen had  worked  one  or  two  years,  an  equal  num- 
ber three  or  four,  19  five  and  less  than  ten  years, 

*  Of  no  families  investigated,  two  did  not  supply  information 
with  regard  to  persons  working  for  wages  outside  the  home. 

114 


A    GROUP   OF    HOME    WORKERS 

20  ten  years  or  longer,  while  23  could  give  no 
definite  answer  to  the  question  except  "many 
years." 

Nor  are  home  workers  all  recently  arrived  im- 
migrants as  many  suppose.  In  the  artificial 
flower  trade  few  home  workers  are  of  native-born 
parentage,  but  that  many  have  been  long  in  the 
United  States  is  shown  by  Table  24. 

TABLE  24. — LENGTH  OF    RESIDENCE  IN  THE    UNITED 
STATES    OF    FOREIGN-BORN    PARENTS    IN    FAM- 
ILIES MAKING  ARTIFICIAL  FLOWERS  AT  HOME  a 


Years  in  the  United  States 

FAMILIES     IN    WHICH     THE     PAR- 
ENTS HAD  BEEN  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES  THE  SPECI- 
FIED NUMBER  OF  YEARS 

Father 

Mother 

Under  5  years         .... 
5  years  and  under  10  . 
10  years  and  under  15   . 
1 5  years  and  under  20  . 
20  years  or  longer  .... 

5 

7 

15 

12 

48 

8 
12 
14 
15 

47 

Total 

87 

96 

a  Among  the  1 10  families  investigated  12  reported  the  father  as 
dead,  four  reported  the  father  as  native  born  and  10  reported  the 
mother  as  native  born,  seven  reported  the  father  as  foreign  born  but 
did  not  specify  length  of  residence,  and  four  reported  the  mother  as 
foreign  born  but  did  not  specify  length  of  residence. 


In  only  five  families  had  the  father  been  in  this 
country  less  than  five  years,  while  in  75  he  had 
been  here  ten  to  twenty  years  or  longer,  and  in 
four  he  was  native  born. 

The  fact  that  the  great  majority  were  Italians 
115 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

was  doubtless  chiefly  due  to  the  attitude  of 
Italians  toward  women  and  their  prejudice  against 
their  employment  outside  the  home.  "  I  talians  are 
different  from  Americans,,,  said  one  home  worker. 
"They  don't  like  to  work  out  in  factories,  and  the 
men  don't  want  them  to  do  it.  They  must  take 
the  work  home,  especially  if  they  are  married. " 
Of  no  households  investigated  the  father  was 
Italian  born  in  105  and  the  mother  in  98.  Four  of 
the  fathers  and  10  of  the  mothers  were  born  in  this 
country  but  in  all  these  cases  the  previous  gene- 
ration came  from  Italy.  In  one  family  the  father 
was  Austrian,  in  one  the  mother  was  Hungarian, 
in  another  Austrian.  The  home-work  system  in 
the  flower  trade  must  be  regarded  not  as  an  iso- 
lated phase  of  the  industry  but  as  an  indication 
of  economic  pressure  in  the  families  of  Italians. 

It  is  indeed  the  increasing  necessity  that  the  wives 
of  wage-earning  men  should  become  wage-earners 
which  is  fostering  the  growth  of  the  home-work 
system.  In  99,  or  10  out  of  1 1  of  the  households 
visited,  the  mother  was  a  home  worker,  some- 
times alone  and  sometimes  with  other  members 
of  the  family.  I  n  only  nine,  or  about  eight  per  cent 
of  the  cases,  had  she  been  a  flower  maker  before 
her  marriage, — a  fact  indicating  that  she  turned  to 
this  work  not  because  she  knew  how  to  do  it  but  be- 
cause under  the  present  order  of  industry  it  seemed 
to  be  her  only  resource.  We  are  accustomed  to 
believe  that  in  the  manufacturing  industries  of 
America  few  married  women  are  at  work,  and  that 

116 


A   GROUP   OF   HOJyiE   WORKERS 

we  have  escaped  the  problems  which  their  em- 
ployment has  brought  to  other  countries.  Yet 
the  predominance  of  unmarried  women  in  the 
factories  does  not  prove  that  married  women  are 
not  obliged  to  work.  Rather  it  indicates  that 
factory  work  with  its  long  hours  is  impossible  for 
mothers  of  little  children.  Studies  of  the  stand- 
ards of  living*  have  shown  how  many  wives  of 
wage-earners,  not  among  Italians  only  but  among 
all  nationalities,  are  seeking  employment  not  in 
factories  but  in  home  work,  in  office  cleaning,  in 
day's  labor, — occupations  whose  one  merit  is  a 
certain  freedom  in  hours  which  enables  the  mother 
to  be  at  home  sometime  during  the  day,  while  her 
freedom  in  this  respect  is  penalized  by  the  wholly 
inadequate  remuneration  offered  her.  The  false 
impression  that  we  have  escaped  the  problem 
of  married  women's  employment  has  arisen  mere- 
ly because  the  organized  industries  which  are 
counted  by  the  census  offer  opportunities  so  ill 
adapted  to  the  duties  of  housewives  and  mothers. 
This  lack  of  opportunity,  combined  with  economic 
pressure  on  women  to  supplement  their  hus- 
bands' earnings,  is  the  two-fold  cause  of  the 
growth  of  the  home-work  system  with  its  break- 
ing down  of  family  life  and  industrial  stand- 
ards. Under  these  conditions  it  will  continue  to 
thrive  unless  the  community  can  be  roused  to 
effective  action. 

*  Cf.  Chapin,  Robert  Coit;  Standards  of  Living  among  Working- 
men's  Families  in  New  York.  Russell  Sage  Foundation  Publication. 
New  York,  Charities  Publication  Committee,  1909. 

117 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE   FLOWER  TRADE  AND  THE   LAW 

ARTIFICIAL  flower  making  is  one  of  the 
200  or  more  manufacturing  pursuits  in- 
cluded within  the  scope  of  the  factory  laws 
of  New  York  state.  The  hours  of  labor  of  women 
and  children  and  sanitary  conditions  in  the  work- 
shops are  restricted  by  legislative  enactment 
which  applies  to  all  factories  throughout  the  state. 
In  addition,  the  labor  laws  affect  the  artificial 
flower  trade  through  a  series  of  somewhat  elaborate 
provisions  regarding  manufacture  in  tenements. 
Apparently,  therefore,  artificial  flower  makers 
should  be  well  protected.  The  industry,  never- 
theless, illustrates  some  serious  shortcomings  in 
the  effort  so  far  made  to  safeguard  the  health  of 
working  women  and  children. 

Thorough  inspection  of  sanitary  conditions  in 
workrooms  was  not  attempted  in  this  investiga- 
tion. It  is  a  field  which  needs  the  attention  of 
experts  in  sanitation,  and  it  seemed  desirable  for 
our  visitors  to  confine  their  attention  to  trade 
conditions,  hours,  wages,  seasons,  and  workroom 
organization  rather  than  to  building  construction, 
ventilation,  or  protection  against  fire  risks.  Nev- 
ertheless, certain  facts  about  workroom  surround- 

118 


THE  FLOWER  TRADE  AND  THE  LAW 

ings  should  precede  a  discussion  of  the  hours  of 
labor. 

Two  types  of  workroom  stand  out  prominently: 
the  loft  in  a  tall  Broadway  factory  building,  and 
the  single  floor  of  a  remodeled  dwelling  house  on 
the  lower  west  side  of  Manhattan.  Few  firms 
occupy  an  entire  building.  The  majority  rent 
lofts  in  factories  jointly  occupied  by  a  half  dozen 
or  more  manufacturers  in  various  industries.  For 
flower  making  does  not  take  much  space,  and  the 
majority  of  firms  in  this  industry  have  a  compara- 
tively small  force  in  the  workroom.* 

The  best  lighted  space  is  almost  invariably  given 
not  to  the  workroom  but  to  the  show  room  for  the 
display  of  flowers.  In  the  Broadway  loft  the 
typical  plan  is  a  long  narrow  room  with  windows 
at  front  and  extreme  rear,  leaving  the  middle  space 
badly  lighted  and  not  adequately  ventilated.  The 
front  windows  usually  light  the  show  room  and  the 
firm's  private  office,  and  a  tall  partition,  used  to 
shut  off  the  workroom,  serves  to  obstruct  the 
light  and  air  which  might  otherwise  reach  the 
workers. 

This  sometimes  makes  necessary  the  use  of 
artificial  light.  A  lighted  gas  jet  unprotected  by 
any  globe  or  wire  guard,  placed  just  above  a  work 
table  dangerously  near  the  cord  on  which  the 
workers  hang  the  finished  and  highly  inflammable 

*  Of  the  1 14  firms  investigated  44  employed  less  than  25  women,  27 
had  a  force  of  25  to  50,  16  had  50  to  75,  10  had  75  to  100,  13  had  100 
to  200,  one  employed  200,  and  one  had  300  women  workers.  Two 
did  not  report. 

119 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

flowers,  is  a  not  uncommon  sight.  Gas  is  also 
used  in  connection  with  the  process  of  goffering, 
and  in  flower  shops  which  have  feather  depart- 
ments it  is  necessary  in  steaming  the  feathers. 
The  finished  flowers,  packed  in  boxes  piled  high 
in  the  workrooms,  are  also  so  inflammable  that 
the  fire  risk  is  very  grave. 

That  the  larger  firms  are  the  ones  able  to  occupy 
a  Broadway  location  has  already  been  pointed 
out.  About  one-third  of  all  the  flower  shops  in- 
vestigated were  located  in  former  dwelling  houses 
planned  for  different  purposes  and  not  satisfactory 
when  used  as  workrooms.  A  few  were  well- 
lighted  and  ventilated,  much  better  indeed  than 
the  long,  narrow  Broadway  loft;  but  in  many,  light 
was  not  well  distributed  throughout  the  rooms, 
heating  and  ventilation  were  defective,  and  the 
wooden  floors  and  stairways  were  covered  with  dust. 
Only  the  fine  old  doors  with  beautifully  curved  arch 
of  glass  above,  serve  to  remind  visitors  of  the  high 
estate  from  which  the  house  has  fallen  since  the  days 
when  it  stood  proudly  in  the  residence  district  of 
the  lower  West  Side.  Now  it  has  become  a  make- 
shift factory  into  which  as  many  workers  as  pos- 
sible are  crowded  in  the  busy  season. 

Unfortunately  the  New  York  labor  law  does 
not  establish  any  definite  standard  of  air  tests 
or  lighting.  Ventilation  must  be  "proper  and 
sufficient,,,  says  the  statute,  and  there  must  be  at 
least  250  cubic  feet  of  air  space  for  each  employe. 
Nothing  is  said  about  testing  the  quality  of  the 

120 


«-*" 

^ 


A  Former  Dwelling  House  containing  Two  Factories 


Feather  Makers 


THE  FLOWER  TRADE  AND  THE  LAW 

air,  nor  is  any  requirement  made  about  lighting. 
These  provisions  leave  much  to  the  discretion  of 
the  inspector,  and  are  not  specific  enough  to  pre- 
vent the  use  of  buildings  not  well  adapted  to 
factory  purposes,  nor  does  either  the  factory  or  the 
building  code  make  definite  requirements  regard- 
ing ventilation  and  light  in  the  construction  of  new 
buildings.  This  failure  to  establish  a  rigid  stand- 
ard of  sanitation  in  buildings  to  be  used  for  factory 
purposes  is  a  lost  opportunity  in  New  York,  for 
even  the  most  casual  glance  shows  how  active 
building  operations  are  at  this  time.  Some  years 
from  now,  when  public  sentiment  may  have  grown 
powerful  enough  to  demand  wholesome  conditions 
in  factories,  a  great  obstacle  to  effective  action  will 
be  the  number  of  buildings  constructed  in  1910  or 
19 12  without  careful  planning  to  give  light  and  air.* 
More  definite  than  these  discretionary  powers 
are  the  provisions  regarding  the  hours  of  work  of 
women  and  children.  In  the  spring  of  1912,  a  bill 
limiting  women's  work  to  fifty-four  hours  a  week  f 
was  passed  in  New  York,  to  take  effect  in  the 
autumn.    At  the  time  of  this  investigation  of 

*  On  the  subject  of  ventilation,  the  Commissioner  of  Labor  wrote 
as  follows  in  his  report  submitted  to  the  legislature  in  February, 
1912:  "The  legislature  of  191 1  failed  to  enact  legislation  fixing  a 
standard  of  ventilation.  This  being  the  case,  we  have  only  under- 
taken in  extreme  cases  to  compel  factory  proprietors  to  provide  means 
of  ventilation  and  to  maintain  satisfactory  air  conditions  in  work- 
rooms." Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor,  New  York  State, 
191 1,  p.  22. 

t  The  following  letter  was  sent  to  members  of  the  committee  on 
labor  and  industries  of  the  legislature  while  this  bill  was  pending. 
It  was  the  result  of  a  unanimous  vote  of  an  Italian  girls'  club,  and 
was  written  by  a  committee  appointed  by  the  club  after  a  discussion 

121 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

flower  shops,  however,  the  law  prohibited  the  em- 
ployment of  women  of  sixteen  years  or  over  longer 
than  sixty  hours  in  a  week.  It  prohibited  work 
by  women  under  the  age  of  twenty-one  between 
the  hours  of  9  o'clock  at  night  and  6  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  thus  assuring  a  rest  period  at  night.  It 
limited  the  working  day  to  ten  hours,  but  by  vari- 
ous " exception"  clauses  it  permitted  these  ten 
hours  to  become  twelve  as  a  regular  practice  not 
more  than  five  days  in  the  week  or  as  occasional 

of  factory  laws  in  New  York  state.  Only  the  signature  and  some 
of  the  spelling  have  been  changed.  Otherwise  it  stands  as  it  was 
written  by  the  girls  themselves  without  other  aid. 

ITALIAN  GIRLS'  INDUSTRIAL  LEAGUE 
28  Macdougal  Street. 

New  York,  March  7th,  1912. 
To  Whom  it  May  Concern: 

We,  the  members  of  the  Italian  Girls'  Industrial  League,  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  girls  of  this  state  are  working  too 
many  hours  a  week  and  we  think  that  the  54  hour  bill  ought  to  hjl 
passed  and  not  only  passed  but  inforced.  Now  in  our  clubwe  rep^B 
sent  all  different  lines  of  industry.  We  have  the  flowe^Hjj^^  • 
have  the  hair  trade,  the  embroiderers,  the  book  binders^H  Mj* 
makers,  childrens'  dresses,  shirt  waist  makers,  dress  mak^JP&les 
ladies,  candy  makers  &  a  good  many  other  trades  &  also  a  brush  maker. 
We  also  know  of  girls  that  work  in  candy  factories  that  go  to  work 
at  7  in  the  morning  and  work  through  until  seven  in  the  evening, 
with  only  Y^  hour  for  lunch  &  only  get  7  cents  for  the  extra  hour  & 
in  the  flowers  the  girls  have  to  work  so  hard  &  when  they  are  busy 
they  have  to  work  overtime  &  also  take  work  home.  They  do  not 
care  whether  a  girl  is  sick  or  not,  she  has  to  work,  but  when  they  are 
slack  they  do  not  care  whether  a  girl  needs  work  or  not,  she  is  laid  off. 
We  could  tell  you  so  much  of  other  trades  but  it  would  take  up  too 
much  space.  We  think  it  would  be  a  very  good  idea  if  some  of  you 
gentlemen  would  go  &  visit  some  of  the  different  factories  and  see 
for  their  selves,  &  I  do  not  think  they  would  be  very  long  in  passing 
that  bill.  We  do  also  want  to  speak  about  the  canneries  up  state. 
We  think  it  an  outrage  that  those  people  have  to  work  such  long 
hours  not  only  for  the  girls  and  women  but  for  those  innocent  little 
children  who  have  to  work  so  hard  when  they  ought  to  be  at  play, 
from  Mrs.  Maria  Gonzaga,  President. 

122 


THE  FLOWER  TRADE  AND  THE  LAW 

overtime  not  more  than  three  days.  The  new  law 
limits  the  week  to  fifty-four  hours,  and  the  day  to 
nine,  with  exceptions  permitting  a  maximum  of  ten 
hours.*  By  an  amendment  f  passed  March,  191 3, 
legal  provision  was  made  for  a  rest  period  between 
10  p.  m.  and  6  a.  m.  for  women  employed  in  fac- 
tories. Women  under  twenty-one  must  still  stop 
work  at  9  p.  m.  Children  under  sixteen  cannot 
legally  be  employed  in  factories  before  8  in  the 
morning  or  after  5  in  the  afternoon,  or  more  than 
eight  hours  in  any  one  day. 

In  the  discussion  of  the  application  of  this  law 
to  any  trade  it  is  necessary  to  distinguish  between 
the  normal  schedule  of  hours  and  the  length  of  the 
working  day  when  it  is  prolonged  by  overtime  in 
the  busy  season.  Table  25  shows  the  total  daily 
hours  of  work  in  flower  shops  when  the  normal 
^hedule  prevails. 

kv  faj^he  largest  group  of  shops, — 79,  or  about 
sfl|  Rvery  10, — employing  3,581  women,  or 
71  I^PKnt  of  the  total  normal  force,  had  a  work- 
ing day  of  nine  to  nine  and  one-half  hours.  Only 
about  one  woman  in  1 1,  470  in  all,  worked  in  a 
shop  whose  day  was  eight  hours  or  less.  None 
were  found  whose  normal  schedule  exceeded  the 
legal  limit  of  ten  hours  daily,  but  100  women,  2 
per  cent,  worked  nine  and  one-half  to  ten  hours. 
It  should  be  remembered  that  in  measuring  the 

*  For  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York  as  to  the  validity 
of  this  law,  see  Appendix  B  of  this  volume. 

f  For  text  of  new  law,  see  Appendix  D  of  this  volume. 
123 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 

TABLE    25. — DAILY    HOURS    OF    WORK,     WHEN     NOT 

WORKING    OVERTIME,    OF    WOMEN     EMPLOYED 

IN  ARTIFICIAL  FLOWER  SHOPSa 


Daily  hours  of  work 

Shops  in 
which 
hours  of 

work 
were  as 
specified 

WOMEN   EMPLOYED 

IN        SHOPS        IN 

WHICH  HOURS  Of 

WORK    WERE    AS 

SPECIFIED 

Number 

Per 
cent 

8  hours  or  less 

More  than  8  hours,  less  than  83^  hrs. 
83^  hours  and  less  than  9  hours  . 

9  hours  and  less  than  9^  hours  . 
9H  hours  and  less  than  10  hours 

6 

3 
21 

79 
3 

470 
80 

782 

3,58i 
100 

9 

2 
16 

7> 

2 

Total 

1 12 

5,013 

100 

a  Of  1 14  firms  investigated,  two  did  not  supply  information.  This 
table  shows  the  hours  in  effect  on  regular  working  days,  not  on  Satur- 
days. 


TABLE    26. — HOURS    AT    WHICH     WOMEN     EMPLOYED 
IN  ARTIFICIAL  FLOWER  SHOPS  BEGAN  WORK8 


Hour  of  beginning  work 

Shops  in 

which  work 

began  at 

time 
specified 

WOMEN     EMPLOYED     IN 

SHOPS        IN        WHICH 

WORK     BEGAN     AT 

TIME  SPECIFIED  b 

Number 

Per  cent 

745  a.  m 

8  a.  m.  and  before  8  30  a.  m. 
8:30  a.  m.  and  before  9  a.  m. 

1 
96 
15 

60 

4,059 
884 

1 
81 

18 

Total 

1 12 

5,003 

100 

a  Of  1 14  firms  investigated,  two  did  not  supply  information. 
bOf  the  96  shops  beginning  work  from  8  to  8:30  a.  m.  one  did  not 
report  number  of  women  employed. 

124 


THE  FLOWER  TRADE  AND  THE  LAW 

length  of  the  working  day  the  time  allowed  for 
meals  is  deducted,  so  that  the  period  between  the 
time  of  beginning  work  and  the  time  of  ending — 
the  whole  period  when  the  worker  is  really  re- 
sponsible to  the  shop — is  longer  than  the  state- 
ment of  daily  hours  indicates. 

Between  8  a.  m.  and  8:30  a.  m.  was  the  opening 
time  for  96  shops,  employing  4,059,  81  per  cent 
of  the  women  workers.  Only  one  shop  opened 
earlier,  while  15  began  the  day  at  8:30  a.  m.  or 
later. 

TABLE    27. — HOURS    AT    WHICH    WOMEN     EMPLOYED 

IN    ARTIFICIAL  FLOWER  SHOPS   LEFT  WORK 

WHEN    NOT  WORKING   OVERTIME a 


Hour  of  leaving  work 

Shops  in 

which  work 

ended  at 

time 
specified 

WOMEN     EMPLOYED    IN 

SHOPS    IN    WHICH 

WORK  ENDED  AT  TIME 

SPECIFIED** 

Number 

Per  cent 

5  p.  m.  and  before  5 130  p.  m. 
5 130  p.  m.  and  before  6  p.  m. 

6  p.  m 

54 
56 

20 

2,664 
2,304 

1 

53 
46 

Total 

1 1 1 

4,988 

100 

» Of  114  firms  investigated,  three  did  not  supply  information. 
This  table  shows  the  hours  of  closing  on  regular  working  days,  not 
on  Saturdays. 

bOf  the  56  shops  in  which  the  hour  of  leaving  work  is  6  p.  m., 
one  did  not  report  number  of  women  employed. 

Slightly  more  than  half  (53  per  cent)  of  the 
women,  or  2,664,  worked  until  sometime  between 
5:30  p.  m.  and  6  p.  m.,  while  2,304,  46  per  cent, 

125 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

worked  until  exactly  6  o'clock.  Only  one  shop 
closed  before  5:30  p.  m.  Between  the  time  of 
beginning  and  ending  work  only  one  rest  period 
was  allowed — the  noon  recess. 


TABLE    28. — LENGTH    OF   NOON    RECESS    OF    WOMEN 
EMPLOYED    IN    ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   SHOPS a 


Length  of  noon  recess 

Shops  in 
which  noon 
recess  was 
as  specified 

WOMEN     EMPLOYED     IN 

SHOPS    IN    WHICH 

NOON    RECESS    WAS 

AS    SPECIFIED  b 

Number 

Per  cent 

Thirty  minutes   .... 
Forty-five  minutes  and  less  than 

sixty 

Sixty  minutes     .... 

39 

9 
63 

2,083 

563 
2,342 

42 

11 
47 

Total 

1 1 1 

4,988 

100 

aOf  1 14  firms  investigated,  three  did  not  supply  information. 
bOf  the  39  shops  in  which  the  noon  recess  was  thirty  minutes, 
one  did  not  report  number  of  women  employed. 

In  39  shops,  employing  more  than  2,000  wom- 
en, the  noon  recess  was  only  half  an  hour  long. 
The  law  provides  for  a  one-hour  lunch  period  but 
unfortunately  allows  this  time  to  be  shortened  by 
special  permit  from  the  labor  department.  A 
large  number  of  factories  in  all  industries  secure 
this  permit.  That  63  flower  shops,  employing 
2,342  women,  47  per  cent,  gave  an  hour  at  noon 
is,  therefore,  rather  surprising.  The  probable  ex- 
planation of  allowing  this  full  hour  in  so  many 
flower  factories  is  that  these  are  the  shops  nearest 
to  the  homes  of  the  workers,  and  the  location 

126 


1 


THE    FLOWER   TRADE   AND   THE    LAW 

enables  the  girls  to  go  home  for  lunch.  If  they 
were  obliged  to  eat  lunch  in  the  workroom  they 
would  probably  prefer  a  shorter  recess  and  an 
earlier  closing  hour  at  night.  This  tendency  on 
the  part  of  employers  and  workers  to  cut  down 
the  noon  rest  period  is  a  dangerous  one  for  the 
workers'  health. 

Many  establishments  have  a  slightly  earlier 
closing  hour  on  Saturday,  so  that  the  length  of 
the  working  week  is  not  always  six  times  the 
working  day.  Thus,  one  more  table  is  necessary 
to  show  the  weekly  hours  of  labor  of  flower  makers. 

TABLE    29. — WEEKLY  HOURS   OF  WORK,    WHEN    NOT 

WORKING   OVERTIME,    OF   WOMEN    EMPLOYED 

IN    ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   SHOPS a 


Weekly  hours  of  work 

Shops  in 
which 

weekly 
hours  were 
as  specified 

WOMEN     EMPLOYED    IN 

SHOPS    IN    WHICH 

WEEKLY  HOURSWERE 

AS  SPECIFIED 

Number 

Per  cent 

48  hours  or  less  . 
Over  48  hours  and  less  than  50 
50  hours  and  less  than  52    . 
52  hours  and  less  than  54  . 
54  hours       .... 
Over  54  hours  and  less  than  56 
56  hours  and  less  than  58   . 

7 

2 

17 

57 

14 

3 

5 

552 
40 

633 
2,625 

357 

440 
150 

12 
1 
•3 
55 
7 
9 
3 

Total 

105 

4.797 

100 

aOf  114  firms  investigated,  nine  did  not  supply  information. 

In  57  shops,  2,625  women,  55  per  cent,  worked 
fifty-two   to  fifty-four   hours   in   a   week.     This 

127 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

group  represents  the  majority.  Twenty-two  shops 
worked  longer,  while  26  had  a  shorter  week.  The 
shops  working  longer  than  fifty-four  hours  were  the 
ones  affected  directly  by  the  fifty-four-hour  law. 
None,  however,  worked  regularly  the  sixty  hours 
permitted  by  the  law  in  force  at  the  time  of  this 
investigation,  so  that  it  was  possible  for  all  em- 
ployers to  lengthen  the  normal  hours  of  work 
more  or  less  in  busy  season  without  exceeding  the 
limit  of  the  law.  Thus  there  are  two  kinds  of 
overtime,  legal  and  illegal. 

To  secure  accurate  information  about  overtime, 
especially  when  it  exceeds  the  legal  limit,  is  not 
so  easy  as  to  ascertain  the  normal  working  day. 
Employers  are  not  willing  to  make  full  confession 
of  violating  the  law,  and  employes  fear  that  if 
they  give  this  sort  of  information  they  may  be 
found  out  and  discharged.  The  cases  of  which  we 
have  record  must  be  regarded,  therefore,  as  illus- 
trative rather  than  a  measure  of  the  extent  of  over- 
time. Nevertheless,  employers  in  as  many  as  72 
of  the  shops  investigated  reported  that  they  were 
accustomed  to  prolong  the  workday  at  certain 
seasons, — although  not  in  all  cases  to  an  illegal 
excess, — while  only  40  stated  that  they  never  had 
any  overtime.    Two  did  not  report. 

In  interviewing  employes,  card  records  were 
made  not  only  of  the  girl's  trade  history  but  of  the 
details  of  her  report  of  shops  in  which  she  had 
been  employed,  and  whose  conditions  she  could 
remember  most  accurately.     A  tabulation  of  47  of 

128 


THE    FLOWER  TRADE   AND   THE    LAW 

these  reports  made  by  girls  who  had  actually 
worked  overtime  gives  an  indication  of  violations 
of  the  law  in  this  trade.  If  the  numbers  seem 
small  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  each  report 
represents  not  one  worker  only  but  others  em- 
ployed under  the  same  conditions  in  the  same 
shop.  Four  reported  that  they  had  worked  be- 
tween ten  and  eleven  hours  in  a  day;  21  had 
worked  between  eleven  and  twelve  hours;  and  12 
had  worked  exactly  twelve  hours,  exclusive  of 
time  allowed  for  lunch  and  supper.  Three  had 
worked  more  than  twelve  hours  in  a  day.  Seven 
others  reported  overtime,  but  the  time  of  stopping 
work  was  so  irregular  that  no  definite  statement 
of  the  length  of  the  workday  could  be  secured. 

It  was  entirely  possible  to  keep  within  the  legal 
daily  limit  of  twelve  hours  and  still  have  not  only 
a  very  long  day  but  an  excessively  long  week. 
For  example,  one  flower  maker,  seventeen  years 
old,  reported  that  normally  she  worked  from  8 
a.  m.  until  5 130  p.  m.  with  a  half  hour  at  noon, 
and  on  Saturday  stopped  at  5  p.  m. — nine  hours 
daily  except  Saturday  and  fifty-three  and  one-half 
hours  weekly.  But  when  working  overtime  she 
stayed  four  nights  a  week  until  8:30  with  no  time 
allowed  for  supper,  thus  working  twelve  hours  a 
day  and  sixty-five  and  one-half  hours  a  week.  To 
have  no  time  for  supper  was  a  violation  of  the  law 
which  requires  that  in  cases  where  employes  are  to 
work  overtime  more  than  an  hour  after  6  p.  m.,  at 
least  twenty  minutes'  recess  must  be  allowed  be- 

129 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

fore  beginning  overtime  work.  Furthermore,  this 
case  was  a  violation  of  the  somewhat  intricate  pro- 
vision by  which  " irregular"  or  occasional  over- 
time must  not  exceed  a  ten-hour  day  more  than 
three  days  in  the  week.*  Clearly,  however,  the 
long  twelve-hour  day  was  possible  under  the  law. 
Enforcement  was  made  difficult  by  the  fact  that  a 
violation  is  not  proved  unless  it  can  be  clearly 
shown  that  the  excess  over  ten  hours  occurred  on 
more  than  three  days  in  the  week,  and  unless  the 
total  for  the  week  exceeds  sixty  hours  as  it  did 
in  this  case.  This  girl's  report  is  an  illustration 
of  the  intricacies  f  of  proving  a  violation.  It  also 
shows  the  way  in  which  the  working  week  may  be 
prolonged  unduly  without  exceeding  the  daily 
limit  on  any  one  day. 

Because  of  these  complications  1 5  of  the  47  re- 
ports of  overtime  did  not  contain  all  the  necessary 
facts  as  to  time  of  beginning  and  ending  work  each 
day,  change  in  Saturday  hours,  time  allowed  for 
lunch  and  supper  each  day,  and  number  of  days 
when  overtime  was  worked,  to  make  possible  an 
accurate  count  of  the  total  working  week.  Of 
the  32  records  supplying  all  these  facts,  however, 
20  showed  a  violation  of  the  sixty-hour  law.  Of 
these,  eight  were  reports  of  more  than  sixty  but 
less  than  sixty-five  hours,   1 1  recorded  sixty-five 

*  See  page  122. 

t  The  intricacies  were  not  removed  when  the  fifty-four-hour  law 
was  passed,  although  for  the  former  sixty  we  must  now  read  fifty-four, 
for  a  ten-hour  day  substitute  nine,  and  for  the  maximum  twelve 
read  ten. 

130 


Inflammable  Material  is  Hung  Near  Unguarded  Gas  Jets 


1 

*    j 

f 

J  s 

1 

An  Attic  Workroom 


THE    FLOWER   TRADE    AND   THE    LAW 

to  seventy  hours,  and  one  a  seventy-two-hour 
week.  The  remaining  12  showed  overtime  above 
the  regular  schedule,  varying  from  less  than  fifty- 
two  to  sixty  hours,  but  not  exceeding  what  was 
then  the  legal  limit.  These  reports  represented  24 
shops,  of  which  17  exceeded  the  sixty-hour  limit. 

It  may  seem  at  first  glance  that  long  hours  of 
work  are  not  serious  in  such  a  trade.  No  heavy 
work  is  done  by  women  in  flower  shops.  The 
materials  which  they  handle  are  light,  and  tools 
held  in  the  hand  take  the  place  of  the  nerve-rack- 
ing electric  power  machines  of  other  industries. 
Yet  elements  of  fatigue  are  by  no  means  lacking. 
The  flower  maker  sits  at  her  work  all  day.  Physi- 
cians say  that  to  sit  continuously  may  be  as  injuri- 
ous as  to  stand  continuously.  It  has  been  noted 
that  many  of  the  workrooms  are  poorly  ventilated, 
and  that  the  air  is  further  vitiated  by  gas  stoves 
used  for  heating  the  tools  and  sometimes  by  gas 
used  for  illumination.  Frequently  the  dyeing  is 
done  in  a  corner  of  the  same  room  in  which  the 
girls  work  and  the  odor  of  the  wood  alcohol  is  un- 
pleasant and  even,  as  many  believe,  positively 
injurious.  Some  girls  complain  that  the  hard 
wire  and  the  heated  iron  tools  tire  the  fingers  and 
make  the  hands  callous,  and  others  that  the 
colored  flowers  strain  their  eyes.  More  serious  is 
the  complaint  that  certain  dyes  are  poisonous.* 

*  This  opinion  was  expressed  so  frequently  by  workers  that  it  seems 
credible,  although  no  medical  examinations  have  been  made  to  sup- 
port it.  The  girls  say  that  they  inhale  the  dust  from  cheap  flowers, 
and  that  the  color  frequently  stains  their  hands  and  may  inadvertently 

131 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

Although  there  are  no  machines  to  speed-up  the 
workers,  the  forewoman  aided  by  the  piece-work 
system  frequently  takes  their  place. 

"  It's  an  awful  grind,"  said  one  woman  of  thirty 
years'  experience  in  flower  shops.  "They'd  like 
to  take  the  blood  out  of  you.  Work!  Work! 
Work!"  The  new  scientific  studies  of  the  physi- 
ology of  fatigue  prove  that  physical  exhaustion 
results  not  alone  from  heavy  work  which  strains 
the  muscles,  but  quite  as  surely  from  long-con- 
tinued attention  directed  to  one  task.*  A  twelve- 
hour  day  means  exhaustion  for  the  flower  maker, 
with  as  much  danger  from  the  now  demonstrated 
poisonous  character  of  the  "toxin  of  fatigue"  as 
would  result  from  prolonged  hours  in  any  other 
occupation. 

Employment  more  than  sixty  hours  a  week  was 
not  the  only  violation  of  the  law  reported  by 
workers.  Table  30  shows  other  infringements  of 
the  regulations  designed  to  protect  working  women 
and  children. 

These  reports,  again,  must  be  regarded  merely 
as  illustrative  and  not  in  any  sense  a  measure  of 
the  extent  of  the  violations  there  listed.  Never- 
theless, if  interviews  with  less  than  200  workers 
revealed  123  distinct  cases  of  disregard  of  the  law, 

be  rubbed  on  the  mouth  or  eyes.  They  dread  especially  the  red  color 
known  as  Flying  Jack,  and  say  that  their  saliva  is  red  when  they  have 
been  working  on  roses  of  that  shade.  A  special  investigation  of  the 
physical  effects  of  these  dyes  ought  to  be  made. 

*  Goldmark,  Josephine:  Fatigue  and  Efficiency.  Russell  Sage 
Foundation  Publication.  New  York,  Charities  Publication  Com- 
mittee, 1912. 

132 


THE    FLOWER  TRADE   AND  THE    LAW 

it  would  seem  that  if  a  thorough  investigation  of 
5,000  flower  makers  were  possible  the  violations 


TABLE     30. — VIOLATIONS      IN      ARTIFICIAL     FLOWER 

ESTABLISHMENTS    OF    LAWS    RESTRICTING    THE 

EMPLOYMENT   OF    WOMEN   AND  CHILDREN a 


Nature  of  violation 

Violations 
of  each 

specified 
nature 

Children 

Children  under  14  employed 

Children  under   16  employed  without  working 

papers 

Children  under  16  employed  more  than  8  hours 

daily 

Children  under  16  employed  more  than  48  hours 

weekly 

Women 

Women  under  2 1  employed  after  9  p.  m.    . 

Women  employed  more  than  12  hours  daily 

Women  employed  more  than  60  hours  weekly    . 

Women  allowed  less  than  20  minutes  for  supper 
when  working  overtime  more  than  one  hour 
after  6  p.  m. 

Women  employed  more  than  10  hours  daily  irreg- 
ularly more  than  3  times  a  week 

Women  employed  on  Sunday  work  (with  no  other 
day  of  rest  allowed  in  the  week) 

Home  work 
Work  taken  home  by  shop  workers  living  in  un- 
licensed tenements 

5 

7 

14 

*3 

2 

3 
20 

23 

18 

1 

>7 

Total 

123 

aAs  reported  by  workers  who  had  experienced  the  violations. 


discovered  would  be  multiplied  to  an  alarming 
degree.    The  tendency  to  overtime  becomes  the 

133 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

more  serious  when  we  realize  that  home  work 
given  to  shop  employes  after  their  day's  work  in 
the  shop  offers  an  escape  from  factory  laws,  and  is 
often  a  substitute  for  overtime  in  the  factory. 
This  home  work  is  really  overtime,  although  in 
the  discussion  of  hours  of  work  in  the  shop  it  has 
not  been  so  counted.  The  last  violation  named 
in  the  table,  the  giving  out  of  work  to  employes 
who  live  in  unlicensed  houses,  is  due  to  this 
method  of  prolonging  the  day's  labor.  It  nulli- 
fies factory  laws  and  renders  the  task  of  protecting 
the  health  of  women  and  girls  wellnigh  hopelessly 
baffling.  For  instance,  one  girl  who  reported  "no 
overtime"  in  her  shop,  nevertheless  told  the  in- 
vestigator that  excessive  night  work  had  "broken 
her  down."  She  had  been  sick  for  several  months, 
and  the  illness  had  left  her  weak  and  anaemic. 
She  and  her  sister  had  worked  at  home  until  i 
or  2  o'clock  in  the  morning  making  flowers  brought 
from  the  shop  after  the  day's  work. 

Of  the  employers  interviewed,  86,  or  three- 
fourths,  stated  that  they  gave  work  to  their  em- 
ployes to  take  home  at  night.  Five  gave  no  in- 
formation on  this  point.  Only  23,  about  one  in 
five,  reported  no  home  work  for  shop  employes. 
Of  these  23,  17  said  that  instead  of  home  work 
they  had  overtime  in  the  shop,  while  only  six,  5 
per  cent  of  the  total  number  investigated,  re- 
ported no  overtime  and  no  home  work.  Nearly 
half,  52,  reported  both  overtime  in  the  shop  and 
home  work  for  shop  employes,  while  34  said  that 

134 


THE  FLOWER  TRADE  AND  THE  LAW 

the  work  at  home  was  a  substitute  for  overtime  in 
the  factory. 

Contrary  to  the  facts  about  typical  home 
workers'  families,  who  work  at  home  only  and  not 
in  the  shop,  home  work  after  factory  hours  is  by 
no  means  confined  to  Italians  but  is  quite  as  com- 
mon among  other  nationalities.  The  reasons  for 
the  system  are  not  difficult  to  discover.  The 
workers'  motives  may  be  read  in  an  examination 
of  the  statistics  of  low  wages,  combined  with  the 
statistics  of  short  seasons  of  employment.  The 
employer  is  equally  willing  to  give  out  the  work, 
especially  to  shop  employes  whose  efficiency  he 
knows,  for  it  saves  him  the  expense  of  lighting  his 
factory  and  the  trouble  of  staying  there  himself 
to  supervise  the  work,  and  it  frees  him  from  the 
more  or  less  remote  danger  of  prosecution  for  il- 
legal overtime. 

The  writer  visited  an  artificial  flower  shop  ex- 
actly at  5  o'clock  one  afternoon.  The  employer 
said  that  only  one  girl  in  the  workroom  was  under 
sixteen.  He  pointed  her  out  as  she  was  putting 
on  her  hat  to  go  home.  He  was  especially  strict 
on  this  point,  as  a  factory  inspector  had  recently 
visited  his  establishment  and  instructed  him  to 
send  children  home  at  5  o'clock.  The  next  day 
one  of  our  visitors  went  to  the  home  of  a  flower 
maker,  chosen  quite  at  random  from  a  long  list.  It 
proved  to  be  the  home  of  the  girl  who  had  left  the 
shop  so  promptly  at  5  p.  m.  Her  mother  cor- 
roborated the  statement  that  she  never  worked 

135 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

overtime  in  the  factory.  Instead  of  that,  she 
said,  she  brought  work  home  at  night  and  worked 
until  10  p.  m.  There  is  danger,  indeed,  that  the 
more  strict  the  regulation  of  hours  within  the 
factory,  the  greater  will  be  the  tendency  to  have 
the  work  done  at  home. 

All  roads  in  the  flower  trade  lead  to  the  home- 
work system.  The  home  workers  in  their  eager 
competition  for  work  are  constantly  influencing 
the  wage  scale,  constantly  shortening  the  seasons 
by  swelling  the  volume  of  production  to  meet  im- 
mediate market  demands,  and  constantly  afford- 
ing a  means  of  lengthening  the  hours  of  work  for 
shop  workers  as  well  as  home  workers.  Home 
work  may  even  prolong  the  hours  of  work  within 
the  factory  in  such  processes  as  branching  and 
packing,  which  cannot  conveniently  be  done  at 
home  but  are  the  final  processes  even  on  flowers 
"made"  in  tenements.  Until  the  home-work 
system  is  dealt  with,  New  York  state  will 
never  succeed  in  restricting  the  hours  of  work 
of  artificial  flower  makers  even  to  sixty  in  a 
week. 

So  far,  the  efforts  of  New  York  state  to  deal 
with  the  home-work  system  not  only  in  the  flower 
trade  but  also  in  the  manufacture  of  some  40 
other  articles  of  commerce  have  not  met  with  any 
marked  success.  The  fear  of  contagion  is  the 
basis  of  the  present  attempted  regulation  of  the 
system.  The  provisions  of  this  effort  to  protect 
the  public  health  are  contained  in  the  section  of 

136 


THE    FLOWER  TRADE    AND   THE    LAW 

the  factory  law  entitled  "Tenement-made  Arti- 
cles. "  In  this  law  41  products,*  including  arti- 
ficial flowers,  are  named,  and  none  of  them  may 
be  manufactured  in  a  tenement  which  has  not 
been  licensed  by  the  department  of  labor.  This 
license  is  the  essential  provision  of  the  law.  The 
other  sections  describe  the  method  of  granting  or 
revoking  it.  Before  a  license  is  granted  applica- 
tion for  it  must  be  made  to  the  commissioner  of 
labor  by  the  owner  of  the  house.  In  New  York 
City  it  is  the  duty  of  the  labor  department  to 
consult  the  records  of  the  local  board  of  health 
and  the  tenement  house  department  to  make  sure 
that  no  orders  from  those  departments  are  out- 
standing against  the  property.  An  inspector  of 
the  labor  department  must  then  be  sent  to  in- 
vestigate the  premises.  The  license  may  be 
granted  if  this  inspection  and  the  search  of  the 
records  of  other  departments  prove  that  "such 
building  is  free  from  infectious,  contagious,  or 
communicable  disease,  that  there  are  no  defects 
of  plumbing  that  will  permit  the  free  entrance  of 
sewer  air,  that  such  building  is  in  a  clean  and  proper 
sanitary  condition,  and  that  the  articles  specified 
in   this   section    may    be   manufactured    therein 

*  "Coats,  vests,  knee-pants,  trousers,  overalls,  cloaks,  hats,  caps, 
suspenders,  jerseys,  blouses,  dresses,  waists,  waistbands,  underwear, 
neckwear,  furs,  fur  trimmings,  fur  garments,  skirts,  shirts,  aprons, 
purses,  pocketbooks,  slippers,  paper  boxes,  paper  bags,  feathers, 
artificial  flowers,  cigarettes,  cigars,  umbrellas,  or  articles  of  rubber, 
.  .  .  macaroni,  spaghetti,  ice  cream,  ices,  candy,  confectionery,  nuts 
or  preserves." 

Text  of  law,  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor,  Annual  Report 
of  Commissioner  of  Labor,  191 1,  p.  214. 

137 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

under  clean  and  healthful  conditions."  *  If  these 
conditions  be  not  maintained  the  commissioner  of 
labor  has  power  to  revoke  the  license. 

It  is  obvious  that  this  law  has  no  relation  to  the 
real  drawbacks  of  the  home-work  system  as  they 
have  been  described  in  the  preceding  chapter:  the 
encouragement  of  child  labor,  long  hours  of  work 
for  women,  and  a  prolonged  working  day  for  young 
girls  employed  in  the  shops.  Yet  these  are  in- 
dustrial conditions  which  the  legislature  has  seen 
fit  to  regulate  everywhere  throughout  the  state 
except  when  the  factory  is  in  a  tenement  home. 
The  provisions  of  law  regarding  "tenement-made 
articles"  are  practically  useless  to  the  workers. 

Nor  can  it  be  said  that  the  law  achieves  its 
main  purpose  of  protecting  the  health  of  the  con- 
sumer. A  convincing  statement  on  this  point  is 
a  tabulation  of  the  number  of  persons  per  room 
in  the  households  of  home  workers  in  the  artificial 
flower  trade.     (See  Table  31.) 

More  than  half,  59,  of  the  families  investigated 
lived  in  such  crowded  quarters  that  counting 
kitchens  and  each  tiny  bedroom  they  averaged 
two  or  more  occupants  per  room.  The  flowers  on 
which  members  of  the  family  have  been  working 
are  kept  over  night  in  these  crowded  rooms,  each 
of  which  becomes  a  bedroom  for  two  or  more 
persons.  Yet  only  six  of  the  houses  visited  in 
this  investigation  were  unlicensed.    The  number 

*  See  text  of  law,  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor,  Annual 
Report  of  Commissioner  of  Labor,  191 1,  pp.  214-219. 

138 


THE  FLOWER  TRADE  AND  THE  LAW 

of  persons  per  room,  the  habits  of  the  family, 
their  cleanliness,  or  the  reverse,  are  not  important 
factors  in  securing  a  license  if  the  building  be 
moderately  sanitary.  It  is  true  that  the  law  re- 
quires that  the  state  of  the  building  be  such  that 
articles  "may  be  manufactured  therein  under  clean 
and  healthful  conditions,"  but  the  standard  of 
cleanliness  is  not  defined,  and  the  observance  of 
such  a  standard  in  rooms  which  are  used  both  as 
factory  and  living  quarters  could  hardly  be  en- 
forced even  if  an  army  of  inspectors  were  assigned 
to  the  task. 

TABLE  31. — PERSONS    PER  ROOM  IN    FAMILIES   MAK- 
ING  ARTIFICIAL    FLOWERS    AT   HOMEa 


Persons  per  room 

Families  in  which  the 

number  of  persons 

per  room  was  as 

specified 

Less  than  one  person 

One  person  and  less  than  two  persons  . 
Two  persons  and  less  than  three  persons 
Three  persons  and  less  than  four  persons 
Four  persons 

3 
46 

1 

2 

Total 

108 

aOf  no  families  investigated,  two  did  not  supply  information. 

These  difficulties  are  frankly  stated  in  the  report 
of  the  commissioner  of  labor  of  New  York  for 
the  year  191 1: 

"It  would  be  idle  for  us  to  contend  that  our  supervision 
over  manufacturing  in  tenement  houses  is  up  to  the  standard 
contemplated  in  the  statute.     It  never  has  been  and  never 

139 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

will  be  unless  a  small  army  of  inspectors  is  provided  for  and 
kept  constantly  at  work.  Our  inspectors  are  only  in  these 
apartments  for  a  few  minutes  once  or  twice  a  year  at  most, 
and  it  would  be  folly  to  assume  that  we  are  able  under  such 
circumstances  to  observe  all  that  should  be  known  concerning 
this  phase  of  our  industrial  life.  That  conditions  are  im- 
proving will  be  admitted  by  the  strongest  opponents  of  'home 
work'  in  tenement  houses,  but  that  they  are  far  from  ideal 
is  also  well  known  and  understood  by  all  who  have  given  the 
subject  any  real  attention."  * 

An  inspection  "for  a  few  minutes  once  or  twice 
a  year  at  most"  is  obviously  insufficient  to  pre- 
vent work  being  done  by  tenants  whose  standards 
of  cleanliness  are  menacingly  low  even  though 
they  live  in  licensed  houses;  nor  can  such  brief 
and  infrequent  inspection  give  any  assurance  to 
buyers  that  the  articles  which  they  buy  have  not 
been  manufactured  by  home  workers  ill  with 
tuberculosis,  or  tonsilitis,  or  "sore  eyes,"  or  skin 
disease.  Striking  evidence  of  the  failure  of  the 
licensing  system  is  given  in  a  report  on  the  men's 
ready-made  clothing  trade,  in  one  of  the  19  vol- 
umes containing  the  results  of  the  special  federal 
investigation  of  woman  and  child  wage-earners  in 
the  United  States.  The  investigators'  conclusion 
is  thus  summarized :  f 

"It  has  been  proved  impossible,  in  spite  of  all  existing  laws 
merely  regulating  tenement-house  manufacture,  either  in  the 

*  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor,  Annual  Report  of  Com- 
missioner of  Labor,  191 1,  p.  21. 

t  Report  on  Woman  and  Child  Wage-earners  in  the  United  States. 
Volume  II,  Men's  Ready-made  Clothing,  p.  317.  U.  S.  Senate 
Document  No.  645. 

140 


THE   FLOWER  TRADE  AND  THE   LAW 

United  States  of  America  or  elsewhere,  to  guarantee  to  the 
consumer  that  clothing  made  or  finished  in  homes  is  free  from 
disease  and  vermin.  All  laws  'regulating*  tenement-house 
manufacture  are  more  or  less  ineffective  in  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  principal  purpose  for  which  they  have  been  en- 
acted, namely,  the  preservation  of  the  public  health.  The 
New  York  state  laws  on  this  subject  are  looked  upon  as 
models  for  this  class  of  legislation,  and  every  effort  is  made 
for  their  enforcement,  yet  it  has  been  found  in  this  investiga- 
tion that  work  was  being  done  in  homes  in  the  city  of  New 
York  that,  while  structurally  sanitary,  were  insanitary  from 
other  standpoints,  owing  to  the  presence  of  filth  or  vermin, 
or  of  diseased  persons,  or  that  they  had  become  insanitary 
because  of  the  low  standards  of  the  dwellers  in  them/' 


Not  only  has  the  system  of  regulation  failed  to 
afford  any  real  protection  to  the  consumer,  but 
it  has  not  even  proved  a  check  on  the  spread  of  the 
system.  The  number  of  licensed  tenements  in 
Greater  New  York  in  1906  was  5,261.  By  19 10  the 
number  was  1 3,000.  At  the  rate  of  2,000  a  year, 
owners  of  tenements  not  hitherto  licensed  in  New 
York  City  have  been  applying  for  the  privilege, 
and  at  the  same  rate  the  task  of  inspection 
has  been  growing  rapidly  more  burdensome.  Yet 
with  all  the  expenditure  of  effort  thus  demanded  of 
the  department  of  labor,  experience  has  proved  that 
the  inspection  of  sanitary  conditions  in  the  homes 
of  workers  has  not  only  failed  to  check  the  spread 
of  home  work,  but  also  that  it  has  not  affected  the 
standards  of  any  industry  by  any  such  measure 
of  protection  of  women  or  children  as  is  afforded 
by  even  the  least  effective  of  factory  laws. 

141 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 

Recognizing  that  the  regulation  of  sanitary  con- 
ditions is  not  an  effective  method  of  attack  on  the 
real  evils  of  tenement  manufacture,  sociologists  and 
statesmen  both  in  this  country  and  abroad  are 
seeking  a  better  solution.  For  example,  England 
is  trying  a  scheme  new  to  English  labor  laws ;  name- 
ly, the  establishment  of  minimum  wage  boards. 
This  is  in  accord  with  the  principle  laid  down  by 
the  select  committee  on  home  work  in  1908. 

"In  the  opinion  of  your  Committee,"  they  wrote,  "the 
second  proposal — for  the  establishment  of  Wages  Boards — 
goes  to  the  root  of  the  matter,  in  so  far  as  the  object  aimed 
at  is  an  increase  in  the  wages  of  Home  Workers.  No  pro- 
posals which  fail  to  increase  the  income  of  these  people  can 
have  any  appreciable  effect  in  ameliorating  their  condition."  * 

The  same  point  of  view  was  manifest  in  the 
action  of  consumers'  leagues  at  their  international 
conference  held  in  Geneva,  Switzerland,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1908,  when  "it  was  unanimously  voted 
that  all  the  leagues  there  represented  take  cogni- 
zance of  the  experiment  which  was  being  undertaken 
in  England  to  establish  a  standard  minimum  wage 
in  the  worst  paid  industries."!  This  new  program 
of  reform  serves  at  least  to  show  that  many  care- 
ful investigators  are  convinced  that  the  evils  of 
home  work  can  be  cured  only  by  direct  attack 
designed  to  increase  the  wages  paid.     It  is  an  open 

*  Report  from  the  Select  Committee  on  Home  Work,  p.  xii.  Lon- 
don, Vacher  and  Sons,  1908. 

t  Consumers'  League  of  the  City  of  New  York.  Annual  report, 
March,  1910.     Address  delivered  by  Mrs.  Florence  Kelley,  p.  52. 

142 


"^  4 

1        . 

3BB'                                         |H 

THE  FLOWER  TRADE  AND  THE  LAW 

secret  that  many  advocates  of  this  plan  hope  that 
the  home-work  system  would  vanish  altogether 
once  it  were  deprived  of  the  main  factor  in  its 
growth, — the  chance  for  employers  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  necessity  and  poverty  of  the  work- 
ers to  get  manufacturing  done  at  a  lower  rate  than 
could  possibly  prevail  in  a  factory.  They  reason 
that  to  get  rid  of  the  evils  of  the  system  means  to 
abolish  the  system.  Many  are  contending  that 
as  a  health  measure  manufacture  in  New  York 
City  tenements  should  be  absolutely  prohibited 
by  law. 

Certainly  in  the  artificial  flower  trade  no  real 
protection  can  be  given  to  shop  workers  so  long 
as  home  work  offers  to  the  manufacturer  an  escape 
from  all  the  restrictions  imposed  by  the  factory 
law.  This  means  disaster  not  alone  for  the  work- 
ers but  for  the  industry.  So  long  as  more  than  half 
the  work  is  done  in  tenement  homes;  so  long  as  the 
standards  of  the  industry  with  reference  to  hours 
of  labor,  overtime,  seasons,  and  wages,  are  too  low 
to  permit  an  adequate  standard  of  living  and  effi- 
ciency for  the  workers;  so  long  must  American 
manufacturers  be  content  with  inferior  work. 
No  protective  tariff  will  suffice  to  enable  them 
really  to  rival  the  French  product.  How  closely 
related  are  the  labor  problems  in  Europe  and 
America,  yet  how  different  are  some  of  the  condi- 
tions affecting  the  welfare  of  French  and  American 
flower  makers,  will  be  set  forth  in  the  following 
chapter. 

i43 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  ARTIFICIAL  FLOWER  TRADE   IN 
PARIS 

AS  the  ancient  Greeks  believed  in  a  fate 
which  they  could  not  control,  so  the  arti- 
ficial flower  manufacturer  in  New  York 
accepts  as  an  immutable  fact  the  superiority  of 
the  Parisian  flower  maker.  The  value  of  imported 
artificial  flowers  and  feathers  in  the  United  States 
in  1905  was  $2,369,01 5,*  and  in  the  same  year  that 
of  the  domestic  product  was  $5, 246,822.1  Three 
years  later,  in  1908,  the  value  of  imported  flowers 
and  feathers  had  increased  to  $3,747,021.  The 
reputation  of  the  foreign  flower,  however,  t  is  in- 
dicated not  so  much  by  comparative  statistics  of 
the  total  value  of  the  domestic  and  the  imported 
product  as  by  the  superiority  of  its  position  in  the 
market  here.  Many  models  come  from  Paris,  and 
domestic  manufacturers  are  busied  with  the  work 
of  copying  these  French  designs. 

These  domestic  manufacturers  gave  many  rea- 
sons for  the  greater  success  of  the  French  flower 

*  Statistical  abstract  of  the  United  States  Census,  1908,  p.  409. 

t  Ibid,  p.  157. 

$  Many  flowers  are  imported  from  Germany,  especially  those  of 
small  petals,  such  as  lilacs,  wistaria,  and  forget-me-nots.  In  this 
chapter,  however,  the  facts  given  concern  French  competition. 

144 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

makers.  A  few  spoke  of  the  tendency  among 
French  manufacturers  to  specialize  in  the  making 
of  one  kind  of  flower.  This  they  say  results  in  a 
far  more  beautiful  product  than  is  possible  when 
a  variety  of  models  are  made  in  the  same  shop  as  is 
the  case  usually  in  New  York  flower  shops.  More- 
over, it  gives  the  firm  a  reputation  for  a  certain 
specialty.  Many  referred  to  the  speed  with  which 
work  must  be  done  in  New  York.  They  lamented 
the  absence  of  an  apprenticeship  system  in  the 
industry  here,  and  complained  that  the  wages 
paid  to  New  York  flower  makers  were  so  much 
higher  than  in  Paris  that  America  was  handicapped 
in  competition. 

The  manager  of  one  of  the  larger  factories  said 
that  speed  particularly  affected  the  evenness  and 
durability  in  the  production  of  color.  For  ex- 
ample, in  making  certain  kinds  of  flowers  four 
days  should  be  allowed,  one  for  starching  the  ma- 
terial, two  for  cutting,  dyeing,  and  drying,  and  one 
for  the  work  of  making,  but  manufacturers  here 
are  sometimes  expected  to  rush  things  through  in  a 
single  day.  Artificial  heat  must  then  be  used  to 
hasten  the  drying.  Abroad,  a  man  takes  plenty  of 
time  to  experiment  with  his  colors,  and  allows 
them  to  dry  naturally  and  then  they  last.  An 
importer  with  a  large  show  room  on  Broadway 
agreed  with  this  statement  and  showed  the  visitor 
a  box  of  a  hundred  black  quills  which  he  had  sent 
out  to  be  dyed.  Every  one  had  been  ruined.  He 
believed  that  it  was  better  to  have  the  work  done 

"45 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 

in  Europe,  even  though  the  duty  on  prepared  work 
was  60  per  cent,  and  on  raw  materials  but  20  per 
cent,  because  he  said  American  colorers  could 
never  produce  a  real  black.* 

The  owner  of  a  small  shop,  however,  complained 
that  manufacturers  here  were  not  given  a  chance 
to  do  good  work;  that  importers  went  abroad  and 
stocked  up  with  a  general  line  of  goods.  Later  in 
the  season,  after  a  certain  flower  had  grown  popu- 
lar, they  expected  the  American  manufacturers  to 
copy  it  at  a  moment's  notice  and  for  the  same 
price  the  importer  had  paid  for  the  flower  abroad. 
In  reproducing  a  certain  flower  he  had  had  to 
compete  with  a  Paris  firm  that  makes  a  specialty  of 
that  blossom  throughout  the  season.  In  another 
shop  the  visitor  was  shown  some  very  beautiful 
roses  which  were  not  for  sale  but  which  had  been 
imported  for  models  in  the  workroom.  Material, 
color,  and  form  were  all  in  marked  contrast  to 
the  American  product.  The  foreman  said  that  it 
was  impossible  to  copy  the  material,  the  color,  or 
the  workmanship,  as  the  manufacturer  of  these 
flowers  made  roses  and  nothing  but  roses,  all  the 
year  round,  whether  the  people  wanted  roses  or 
not.  He  knew  he  would  sell  them  because  he  had 
created  a  name  for  himself  in  them.  But  in  New 
York  a  manufacturer  was  obliged  to  make  roses 
one  day,  wheat  the  next,  poppies  the  next,  fancy 

*  An  American  dyer  said  that  the  difference  between  the  water  in 
Paris  and  New  York  accounts  for  the  greater  success  of  the  French 
dyeing. 

146 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

feathers  the  next,  and  then  very  likely  some 
novelty  that  bore  no  resemblance  to  either  flower 
or  feather. 

In  the  matter  of  wages,  an  American  employer 
who  had  learned  the  trade  in  Paris  made  the  un- 
usual statement  that  good  workmen  were  not  to 
be  found  here  because  skilled  flower  makers  got 
better  wages  in  Paris  and  would  not  come  to  New 
York.  Others,  however,  disagreed  with  him,  say- 
ing that  the  American  manufacturer  was  at  a 
disadvantage  in  competing  with  French  prices 
because  he  was  obliged  to  pay  higher  wages  than 
the  Parisian.  This  opinion  was  endorsed  by  the 
French  born  wife  of  a  New  York  manufacturer. 
She  declared  also  that  one  of  the  great  difficulties 
here  lay  in  the  lack  of  any  training  of  the  workers. 
In  France,  a  girl  gives  three  years  and  her  parents 
pay  money  for  her  to  learn  the  trade.  In  New 
York  fathers  and  mothers  care  only  about  the 
four  or  five  dollars  a  week  their  children  can  earn 
and  nothing  about  their  learning  a  trade.  If  the 
children  cannot  earn  the  money  making  flowers 
they  send  them  to  a  pearl  button  factory,  or  a 
paper  box  factory,  where  they  learn  nothing.  Not 
only  are  workers  better  trained  in  France,  she 
said,  but  the  people  are  more  economical  and  able 
to  work  for  lower  wages. 

French  competition,  it  will  thus  be  seen,  was  a 
factor  much  talked  of  in  the  flower  trade  in  New 
York.  We  felt,  therefore,  that  our  inquiry  would 
be  incomplete  unless  we   took  this  factor  into 

147 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

account  and  weighed  the  value  of  the  opinions  so 
frequently  expressed.  To  this  end  we  asked  Miss 
Elizabeth  S.  Sergeant  to  secure  data  for  us  regard- 
ing the  trade  in  Paris,  and  particularly  to  ascertain 
the  accuracy  of  the  statements  of  the  New  York 
manufacturers  that  the  superiority  of  French 
workmanship  was  due  to  such  causes  as  the  low 
cost  of  labor  coupled  with  the  low  cost  of  living  in 
Paris,  the  apprenticeship  system  as  contrasted 
with  our  lack  of  any  similar  system,  the  alleged 
superiority  of  Parisian  design  and  workmanship, 
and  a  steadier  season  due  to  the  specialization  by 
firms  in  one  kind  of  flower.  We  requested  her  to 
lay  especial  stress  in  her  inquiry  upon  the  training 
of  workers. 

Miss  Sergeant  made  the  investigation  in  1910 
during  the  months  of  May  and  June.  Her 
sources  of  information  were  two:  first,  her  personal 
investigation  of  15  factories,  two  trade  schools,  20 
women  employed  in  flower  shops,  and  16  home 
workers;  and,  second,  statistics  obtained  from 
Mile.  Caroline  Milhaud,  investigator  for  the  Min- 
istere  de  Travail,  who  had  made  an  official  study 
of  home  work  in  this  trade  in  Paris  and  the  prov- 
inces during  1907-09.*  Miss  Sergeant's  statistical 
report,  with  its  descriptive  material  and  her  il- 
luminating comments,  forms  the  foundation  of  this 
chapter. 

*  Miss  Sergeant  wrote:  "The  report  of  the  official  investigation 
has  not  yet  been  published,  is  not  yet  edited  in  toto,  so  that  the  giving 
of  statistics  to  an  outsider  involved  much  time  and  patience  on  Mile. 
Milhaud's  part.     This  investigation  was  chiefly  concerned  with  Paris 

148 


THE  TRADE   IN    PARIS 

In  France,  as  in  America,  the  making  of  artificial 
flowers  is  an  urban  industry.  Paris  is  its  center. 
Three  provincial  cities,  however, — Reims,  Lyons, 
and  Orleans, — include  it  among  their  important 
industries,  but  it  is  said  in  France  that  only  the 
Parisian  has  the  "chic"  which  really  makes  the 
beauty  of  a  flower's  " cachet"  (style).  "This 
style,"  said  a  French  manufacturer,  "is  so  subtle 
and  is  obtained  by  so  light  a  turn  of  the  finger  that 
it  escapes  analysis,  yet  it  quadruples  the  beauty 
and  the  price  of  a  flower.  We  have  branch  shops 
in  the  provinces  but  none  of  our  first  class  work  is 
done  outside  Paris.  You  cannot  get  the  style 
anywhere  else." 

No  statistics  could  be  obtained  regarding  the 
number  of  flower  makers  in  the  provinces  and  even 
for  Paris  the  figures  in  the  census  of  1900  are  not 
complete.  The  Employers'  Syndicate,  however, 
includes  500  shops  in  its  membership,  and  in  ad- 
dition to  these,  Paris  contains  many  small  contract 
shops  and  some  large  establishments  which  are  not 
admitted  to  the  Syndicate.*    The  president  of 

(2 1 1  home  workers  were  visited)  and  this  is  the  only  part  considered 
here. 

"To  M.  Arthur  Fontaine,  permanent  head  of  the  Labor  Bureau, 
are  due  my  chief  thanks  for  his  kindness  and  courtesy  in  furnishing 
addresses,  introductions  to  factory  inspectors  and  manufacturers, 
permits  to  visit  trade  schools,  etc  French  flower  manufacturers 
guard  their  trade  secrets  very  carefully,  are  indeed  so  much  afraid 
of  foreign  competition  that  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  visit 
a  single  workshop  without  special  introductions.  M .  Fontaine's  com- 
munication through  Mile.  Milhaud  of  the  official  and  unpublished 
government  statistics  for  the  use  of  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation 
has  given  this  chapter  its  value." 

*  Chambre  Syndicale  des  Fleurs  et  des  Plumes. 
149 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 

the  Syndicate  estimates  the  total  number  of  women 
flower  makers  working  in  shops  and  at  home  in 
Paris  and  its  surrounding  districts,  to  be  30,000, 
while  the  flower  and  feather  makers'  union*  be- 
lieves that  there  are  28,000  workers  in  the  trade 
of  whom  3,000  are  men  and  25,000  women.  Of 
these  women  15,000,  the  union  estimates,  work  at 
home,  and  10,000  work  in  the  shops.  These 
figures  show  that  probably  more  than  twice  as 
many  women  are  employed  in  the  artificial  flower 
industry  in  Paris  as  in  shops  and  home  work  in 
New  York. 

We  are  told  that  the  flower  trade  began  to  de- 
velop in  Paris  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  Only  scattered  notes  are  available,  how- 
ever, to  show  its  beginnings.  "A  man  named 
Joseph  Wenzel,"  says  the  report  of  a  French  as- 
sociation of  flower  and  feather  manufacturers,! 
"was  the  first  person  to  manufacture  artificial 
flowers,  about  1750,  using  silk  and  fine  cotton 
material  for  the  purpose.  The  novelty  had  a 
universal  vogue  in  France  from  the  very  begin- 
ning. It  is  said  that  the  Comte  d'Artois,  who 
wished  to  win  favor  with  the  Queen,  conceived  the 
idea  of  ordering  from  Wenzel  some  white  roses  of 
which  the  petals  represented  the  initials  of  Marie 
Antoinette.  Great  enthusiasm  followed;  Wenzel 
was  made  Merchant  to  the  Queen;  this  fashion  in 

*  L' Industrie  Florale. 

t  Societe  pour  l'Assistance  Paternelle  aux  Enfants  Employes  dans 
Ies  Industries  des  Fleurs  et  des  Plumes.  Report  of  May  23rd, 
1909. 

150 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

gifts  spread  to  other  gentlemen  of  the  Court,  and 
the  Queen  was  so  captivated  that  she  went  to 
Wenzel's  workroom  to  ask  him  to  give  her  lessons 
in  this  delicate  and  difficult  art/' 

The  work  of  the  Bouquetier,  "maker  of  bou- 
quets," is  also  described  in  the  Dictionnaire  por- 
tatif  des  Arts  et  Metiers  (Lacombe,  1756):  "His 
art  consists  in  imitating  with  taffeta,  batiste, 
paper,  feathers,  parchment,  silk  cocoons,  and  other 
suitable  materials,  all  kinds  of  flowers  and  plants, 
and  in  shading  them  so  skilfully  that  they  may  be 
mistaken  for  real  flowers." 

Although  these  accounts  describe  the  early 
period  of  the  art  the  methods  of  making  flowers 
have  remained  much  the  same  as  they  were  then, 
except  that  women  now  share  in  the  work.  The 
position  of  the  industry  as  a  "Metier  de  luxe," 
however,  could  not  last.  "  Like  other  industries 
the  artificial  flower  trade  changed,  the  cheap 
article  was  introduced  and  overwhelmed  the 
market,"  wrote  L.  and  M.  BonnefT  in  La  Vie 
Tragique  des  Travailleurs.*  "  Production  became 
unbridled.  In  order  to  extend  the  market  for 
artificial  flowers,  millinery  was  put  within  the  reach 
of  the  most  limited  purse,  and  the  'artistic  crea- 
tion* had  to  give  way  to  the  'camelotte'  (cheap 
and  nasty).  This  evolution  was  far  from  unfavor- 
able to  the  manufacturers.  Their  business  in- 
creased, and  the  new  openings  for  the  sale  of  their 

*  Bonneff  L.  and  M.:  La  Vie  Tragique  des  Travailleurs,  p.  305, 
Paris,  Jules  Rauff,  1908. 

151 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

goods  made  up  for  the  decrease  in  the  sale  price. 
But  the  workers'  wages  suffered;  it  was  they  who 
had  to  pay  for  cheap  millinery.  Sub-division  of 
work  followed  and  machinery  was  introduced." 

PROCESSES  AND  SHOP  CONDITIONS 

The  main  processes  of  the  trade  are  similar  in 
Paris  and  in  New  York.  These  are  starching, 
cutting,  dyeing,  preparing,  making,  branching, 
and  packing,  and  in  name,  at  least,  the  division 
of  these  tasks  between  men  and  women  is  the 
same  in  the  two  cities.  The  starching  of  the 
cloth,  the  cutting,  and  dyeing  are  done  usually  by 
men;*  preparing,  making,  branching,  and  packing 
by  women.  As  in  New  York,  the  preparation 
of  such  material  as  stamens,  pistils,  cloth,  and 
wire,  rank  as  separate  trades.  The  methods  of 
work  in  the  Paris  shops,  as  in  New  York,  vary 
according  to  the  grade  of  flower  made. 

The  best  "specialties"  made  are  roses  and  "le 
naturel,"  such  as  hortensea,  orchids,  peonies, 
poppies,  geraniums,  and  bachelor's  buttons.  The 
other  products  made  are  small  flowers,  such  as 
lilacs,  forget-me-nots,  heather,  and  lilies  of  the 
valley,  foliage,  fruit,  flowers  for  decoration,  and 
celluloid  and  bead  flowers  for  funeral  wreaths. 
Fleurs  de  luxe,  flowers  of  the  first  quality,  are  all 

*One  woman  dyer  was  seen  at  a  large  factory  at  work  with  five 
other  dyers,  all  men.  In  one  factory  all  the  dyers  were  women;  the 
employer  said  that  this  was  because  men  dyers  were  heavy  drinkers, 
but  the  investigator  thought  that  the  more  likely  reason  was  the 
lower  cost  of  women's  work. 

152 


Crimping  Petals,  New  York 


A  Workroom  in  a  One-time  Residence,  New  York 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

made  in  small  workrooms,  or  by  home  workers 
employed  by  them,  while  fleurs  moyennes  (middle 
grade),  and  fleurs  camelottes  (cheap  grade),  are 
made  either  in  small  shops  owned  by  entrepre- 
neuses, — women  subcontractors, — or  in  large  es- 
tablishments of  the  factory  type. 

These  small  contract  shops  are  found  in  large 
numbers  in  suburban  districts  near  the  homes  of 
the  working  classes.  But  the  chief  flower  fac- 
tories in  Paris  are  situated  in  the  older  business 
section  of  the  city  in  the  great  central  wholesale 
districts.  They  are  housed  in  old  buildings  which 
are  often  dark  and  dirty,  and  their  narrow  passage- 
ways make  the  fire  risk  great.  The  sanitary  con- 
ditions in  15  shops  visited  by  our  investigator, 
however,  were  with  one  exception  reported  as 
"fair"  or  "good,"  but  in  the  rooms  where  gas  was 
used  in  connection  with  the  work  the  temperature 
was  found  to  be  not  always  healthful. 

The  best  quality  flowers  are  frequently  made  in 
small  family  workrooms,  the  husband  and  wife 
taking  an  active  part  in  the  business.  Often  their 
family  has  been  in  the  trade  for  generations  and 
pride  in  their  art  is  a  part  of  their  life.  The  wife 
directs  the  women  workers  personally,  gathering 
flowers  in  her  garden  as  models  for  the  workroom. 
Her  husband  oversees  the  dyeing,  devising  new 
and  secret  processes.  The  workers  are  few,  well 
trained,  comparatively  well  paid,  and  employed 
the  year  round  and  often  for  a  life-time.  They 
love  their  work,  which  is  for  them  a  craft  in  the 

153 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

best  sense  of  the  word.     This,  it  is  said,  was  for- 
merly the  typical  Parisian  flower  shop. 

In  the  records  of  the  investigation  a  small  rose 
shop  of  this  grade  is  described.  Here  it  is  said 
the  most  beautiful  roses  in  the  world  are  made. 
The  visitor  found  Mme.  A.  and  her  married  sister, 
both  refined,  gracious,  and  well  dressed  women, 
sitting  each  at  a  daintily  arranged  little  table  on 
opposite  sides  of  the  reception  salesroom,  working, 
one  at  a  moss  rose,  and  one  at  a  yellow  tea  rose. 
The  real  flowers  stood  in  water  beside  them.  The 
room  was  attractive  and  richly  furnished,  and 
there  were  other  flowers  in  vases.  The  artificial 
flowers  were  kept  in  sliding  drawers  in  cases 
against  the  wall.  Mme.  A.  explained  that  she 
had  seen  the  moss  rose  on  the  street  that  morning, 
and  had  been  eager  to  reproduce  it.  She  had 
copied  even  the  crumpled,  faded  edges  of  the 
buds,  and  it  was  difficult  to  say  whether  her  rose 
or  the  real  rose  was  the  more  beautiful.  On  each 
table  was  the  usual  flat  rubber  pad,  the  potato 
standard  into  which  the  stem  of  the  half  made 
rose  was  stuck,  the  gas  heater,  the  long-handled 
goffer  with  the  ball  on  the  end  for  hollowing  the 
petals,  etc.,  pincers  for  crimping,  and  a  paint  box 
and  brush  for  retouching  the  finished  roses  from 
nature.  These  last  are  found  only  in  establish- 
ments of  this  order.  Usually  all  retouching  of  the 
petals  is  done  by  the  dyer  and  shader  before  mak- 
ing. Mme.  A.  had  learned  the  trade  from  her 
mother.     She  had  a  married  daughter  who  made 

154 


THE   TRADE   IN    PARIS 

flowers  at  home  and  another  who  was  a  sculptress 
of  talent.  She  said  the  secret  of  flower  making 
was  the  rotary  movement  of  the  fingers  of  the  left 
hand  in  winding  stems  and  moulding  buds.  She 
herself  works  four  or  five  hours  to  make  a  rose 
(apart  from  the  process  of  dyeing,  etc.),  she  ex- 
plained, and  added,  "  You  must  love  flowers  and 
love  your  trade  to  succeed;  apprenticeship  lasts 
all  your  life/' 

In  the  main  workroom  of  the  shop  were  five 
women :  one  apprentice,  and  four  workers  of  long 
standing,  the  one  of  twenty  years'  service  acting 
as  the  forewoman.  All  were  making  blue  roses, 
an  order  from  a  milliner.  Mme.  A.  said  she  em- 
ployed a  dozen  or  so  married  women  at  home,  all 
of  whom  she  had  trained  through  an  apprentice- 
ship of  three  years.  In  two  smaller  rooms  two 
men  and  an  apprentice  boy  were  working  on  the 
preliminary  processes  of  preparing  the  cloth,  cutting 
petals,  and  dyeing.  Only  the  finest  batiste,  nain- 
sook, and  organdie,  such  as  are  required  for  fine 
lingerie,  are  used.  Thick  starch  paste  is  made,  and 
after  the  material  is  soaked  in  it  the  cloth  is 
stretched  on  frames  and  dried  in  a  hot  closet. 
When  dry  it  is  folded,  laid  on  a  flat  lead  pad,  and  a 
die  of  the  required  shape  slipped  over  it.  This  is 
struck  with  a  heavy  hammer,  thus  cutting  the 
batiste  or  organdie  into  petals,  great  care  being 
taken  that  the  edges  shall  be  finely  marked.  The 
dyer  was  a  man  of  forty-five  or  fifty,  who  said  he 
had  done  nothing  but  dye  flowers  since  the  age  of 

155 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

seven.  The  petals  are  dyed  a  few  at  a  time, 
squeezed  between  the  palms  of  the  hands,  tinted 
again  with  a  brush,  and  then  dried  on  blotting 
papers.  Aniline  dyes  are  not  used,  but  instead 
the  shop  has  its  own  special  process  of  preparing 
colors.  At  the  time  of  the  visit  the  dyer  was 
tinting  yellow  rose  petals  from  a  real  rose  that 
stood  in  a  glass  on  his  table.  "You  must  always 
have  the  rose  before  you  or  know  it  by  heart,"  he 
said. 

Nothing  not  absolutely  perfect  was  allowed  to 
leave  these  workrooms.  Flowers  were  sold  di- 
rectly to  exclusive  and  fashionable  milliners  as 
well  as  to  wholesale  agents;  often  they  were  un- 
mounted. The  workers  liked  best  to  make  roses 
from  nature,  and  the  shop  was  full  of  many  beauti- 
ful finished  products  each  almost  lovelier  than 
nature  itself.  Except  the  foliage,  all  parts  of  the 
flower,  including  the  stamens,  were  made  on  the 
premises. 

Such  a  shop  has  no  counterpart  in  New  York, 
nor  are  there  many  in  Paris,  and  even  the  number 
of  these  is  said  to  be  decreasing.  Nevertheless, 
they  set  a  high  standard  of  artistic  work  for  French 
flower  makers,  and  thus  their  influence  is  greater 
than  their  numbers.  The  best  of  our  New  York 
establishments  resemble  more  the  large  commercial 
shops  of  Paris,  where  the  medium  grade  of  French 
flowers  are  made,  the  medium  grade  in  France  cor- 
responding to  the  best  product  in  America. 

Some  machinery  and  a  great  deal  of  home  work 
156 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

are  characteristic  of  the  large  commercial  shops. 
It  is  interesting  in  a  discussion  of  women's  work 
to  note  that  the  wife  of  the  employer  often  takes 
an  active  part  with  him  in  the  technical  phases  of 
the  trade  as  well  as  in  the  business  management  of 
the  shop.  Each  department  has  its  foreman  and 
forewoman  (premiere),  the  former  to  supervise  the 
cutting  and  dyeing,  and  the  latter  to  take  charge 
of  the  making  and  mounting,  or  branching.  The 
foremen  and  forewomen  supervise  all  the  workers 
and  distribute  the  work,  marking  in  each  worker's 
book  the  number  of  the  model,  the  time  of  begin- 
ning and  finishing,  the  number  of  gross,  and  the 
price.  Each  shop  has  at  least  one  dyeing  room, 
a  hot  closet  for  drying,  a  cutting  room  where 
machine  crimping  is  also  sometimes  done,  and  one 
or  more  large  workrooms  for  making  and  mount- 
ing,— sometimes  a  separate  room  for  each  type  of 
flower,  as  for  instance,  the  "rose  room."  In  the 
stock  room  with  its  counter  and  shelves,  materials 
are  kept  to  be  handed  to  the  forewoman  for  dis- 
tribution. Usually  adjoining  is  a  large  store  room 
where  completed  flowers  are  packed  in  light  wooden 
boxes  as  soon  as  they  are  brought  from  the  work- 
room. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  describe  the  processes  in 
detail  but  certain  touches  in  the  investigator's  re- 
port are  interesting.  Each  woman  makes  the 
whole  flower,  but  branching  is  done  by  other  work- 
ers. The  workers  wear  white  linen  aprons  and  sit 
on  stools  at  long  tables,  with  their  various  tools 

i57 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

before  them.  The  rosemakers,  when  the  petals 
are  ready,  attach  the  inner  ones  to  a  wire  stem, 
stick  its  end  into  their  potato  standard,  and  add 
petals,  crimp  the  edges,  and  form  the  flower  as  it 
hangs  head  downwards  before  them.  The  fingers 
are  used  a  great  deal,  with  a  characteristic  rotary 
movement  of  the  thumb  and  finger  of  the  left  hand. 
Because  this  is  considered  the  first  principle  of 
flower  making,  apprentices  are  made  to  practice  it 
every  day. 

An  example  of  this  type  of  shop  was  an  im- 
portant establishment  in  a  wholesale  district  in 
Paris.  It  occupied  seven  floors,  with  the  offices 
on  the  first,  retail  salesrooms  on  the  second,  and 
workrooms  and  store  rooms  on  the  other  five.  In 
the  busy  season  300  workers  are  employed  and  in 
the  slack  season,  200.  The  cutting  and  crimping 
of  fine  flowers  was  done  by  hand,  but  the  shop  was 
equipped  with  modern  machines  for  these  processes 
on  cheaper  flowers  of  certain  types.  Usually  one 
worker  prepared  and  made  the  whole  flower,  and 
another  did  the  branching.  The  workers  sat  on 
stools  at  long  tables,  on  which  were  placed  the 
rubber  pad,  and  the  bowl  of  paste,  potato  stand- 
ard, gas  lamp,  goffers,  and  pincers.  The  factory 
was  clean  and  light,  and  the  proprietor,  smug, 
hard-faced,  and  well-groomed,  affected  great  solici- 
tude for  the  workers.  He  is  a  prominent  mem- 
ber of  the  Employers'  Syndicate,  and  takes  ap- 
prentices from  this  association .  Here  once  more, 
as  in  the  rose  shoD  described  above,  the  investi- 

158 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

gator  was  told  that  the  first  principle  of  flower 
making  was  the  rotary  movement  of  the  thumb 
and  forefinger  of  the  left  hand,  and  that  appren- 
tices practice  it  with  great  regularity.  The  piece- 
work rates  in  this  establishment  were  calculated 
on  a  basis  of  12  cents  an  hour.  The  forewoman 
got  200  francs  a  month  ($40)  and  a  percentage  on 
the  work  done  by  the  girls. 

The  owner  said  that  home  work  was  unreliable 
and  that  he  depended  upon  it  as  little  as  possible. 
He  had  two  branch  factories  in  Paris  and  others 
in  the  provinces.  Yet  in  spite  of  the  excellent 
physical  conditions  of  this  factory  and  the  plaus- 
ible statements  of  the  owner  in  regard  to  home 
work,  comments  of  the  workers  cast  doubt  upon 
his  sincerity.  "The  place  is  a  boite,,,  *  said  one. 
"One  can't  earn  her  living  there."  "  He  is  one  of 
the  worst  of  employers/'  "He  gives  out  an 
enormous  amount  of  home  work,  a  great  deal  to 
convents." 

Methods  in  large  factories  which  produce  the 
cheapest  grade  of  flowers  differ  from  those  making 
the  medium  grade  in  that  the  cloth  is  prepared 
elsewhere,  and  then  often  dyed  in  the  piece  instead 
of  first  having  been  cut  into  petals.  More  work 
is  done  by  machines  than  in  the  better  grade  of 
shops  and  the  number  of  home  workers  is  larger. 
One  of  these  shops  is  thus  described:  The  work- 
rooms were  situated  on  two  floors  around  a  rather 
dirty  court.    They  were  almost  empty  at  the  date 

*  Slang  for  a  "horrid  hole." 
1 59 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

of  the  visit  in  July.  In  the  season,  however,  50 
workers  are  employed  in  the  shop,  and  400  home 
workers.  The  employer  refused  to  state  wages, 
but  a  notice  on  the  wall  of  the  workroom  read: 
"Workers  who  earn  less  than  $3.60  per  week  will 
be  dismissed,  prices  having  been  calculated  on  a 
basis  of  70  cents  per  day."  This  daily  sum  ap- 
parently allowed  a  margin  between  the  daily 
estimate  and  the  minimum  weekly  production 
expected.*  The  cloth  was  bought  all  prepared, 
the  dyeing  being  done  mostly  in  the  piece,  and  the 
cutting  and  crimping  wholly  by  machinery.  The 
making  was  all  done  by  home  workers,  also  part 
of  the  branching.  This  factory  is  considered  one 
of  the  worst  in  Paris  in  regard  to  wages  and  work- 
manship. Good  workers  cite  it  as  a  place  where, 
in  spite  of  the  sign  on  the  wall,  you  cannot  earn 
40  cents  a  day,  and  where  no  good  worker  would 
go  willingly.  Yet  the  visitor  made  this  comment 
on  the  product  of  the  establishment:  "Flowers 
seen  here  were  distinctly  above  the  level  of  those 
in  New  York  tenements  and  would  seem  of  good 
quality  in  America." 

The  small  contract  shops  conducted  by  entre- 
preneurs represent  a  different  type  of  establish- 
ment. Sometimes  the  owner  has  been  a  home 
worker,  who  now  employs  young  girls  to  help  her. 
The  only  processes  done  in  these  small  shops  are 
the  making  and  the  branching,  the  petals  having 

*  This  was  evidently  not  a  statement  of  wage  rates,  but  a  scheme 
for  speeding  up  the  workers. 

160 


>  •  * »    •      '    » 


.    >    »        > 
4  J      . 


••  \J '  '  > 


Rose  Makers,  New  York 


Preparing  the  Petals,  New  York 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

been  prepared,  cut,  and  dyed  in  the  larger  shops 
from  which  the  contractor  has  received  her  work. 

SEASONS  AND  WAGES 

The  seasons  in  the  flower  trade  in  Paris  vary 
according  to  changes  in  fashion,  and  types  of 
"  specialties,"  and  the  statements  of  workers  and 
manufacturers  on  this  subject  are  by  no  means 
uniform.  In  some  shops  of  the  best  grade  and  in 
factories  where  both  flowers  and  feathers  were 
made,  manufacturers  reported  that  workers  were 
employed  throughout  the  year.  In  the  medium 
grade  establishments  they  said  that  probably  a 
third  were  laid  off,  and  in  the  cheap  shops,  two- 
thirds  or  more.  As  an  illustration  of  the  irregu- 
larity of  employment  of  shop  and  home  workers 
alike  government  investigators  cited  the  fact  that 
of  170  home  workers,  in  were  unemployed  at 
some  time  during  the  year.  Of  87  reporting 
definitely  on  the  subject  of  loss  of  time,  31  lost 
from  one  to  two  months;  35,  from  three  to  five 
months ;  and  2 1 ,  six  months  or  more.  The  busiest 
season  precedes  the  spring  millinery  trade.  Work 
on  flowers  for  exportation  may  begin  in  Novem- 
ber, while  those  for  France  give  employment  be- 
ginning in  January.  By  Easter  or  Whitsunday, 
the  spring  season  ends.  Flowers  for  winter  hats 
are  made  in  July,  August,  or  September,  but  em- 
ployment at  this  time  is  very  irregular,  depending 
upon  the  fashions.  It  is  becoming  the  custom 
now  for  French  flower  makers  to  learn  the  feather 

161 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

trade  as  a  resource  for  slack  season,  whereas  for- 
merly they  could  make  flowers  the  year  round. 
Even  now  it  appears  that  the  proportion  of  workers 
employed  steadily  through  the  dull  season  is 
larger  in  Paris  than  in  New  York. 

As  in  New  York,  employers  during  the  busy 
season  give  out  flowers  to  their  shop  hands  to  take 
home  at  night  and  on  Sundays.  They  say  they 
must  fill  their  orders  and  that  this  extra  work  is  a 
blessing  to  the  girls  since  they  must  earn  what  they 
can  when  trade  is  brisk  in  order  to  save  up  for  the 
bad  season.  The  girls  give  a  different  explana- 
tion, saying  they  have  to  take  the  work  or  they 
would  lose  their  places.  They  complain,  too, 
that  employers  always  give  them  the  most  difficult 
and  unsatisfactory  models  to  make  at  home.  They 
say,  however,  that  they  could  not  support  them- 
selves without  this  extra  work,  thus  indirectly  re- 
vealing an  inadequate  standard  of  wages  in  the 
trade. 

Information  about  wages  in  the  shops  was  not 
comprehensive.  Many  persons  interviewed,  in- 
cluding workers,  investigators,  and  a  factory  in- 
spector, stated  that  40  cents  a  day  was  approx- 
imately the  average  wage  for  the  trade  as  a  whole, 
while  for  the  best  specialties  the  workers  received 
from  60  cents  to  $1.00  a  day.  After  three  years 
of  apprenticeship  a  flower  maker  is  expected  to 
earn  60  cents  a  day  in  the  season,  and  later,  after 
more  experience,  $1.00  or  $1.20.  Employers  in- 
terviewed emphasized  the  maximum  possibilities 

162 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

in  the  busy  season.     The  estimates  of  five  are 
given. 

A.  Best  flowers,  maximum  earnings $14  a  week. 

B.  Best  flowers,  |i.oo  or  $1.20  a  day. .  $6.oo-$7.oo  a  week, 

C.  Roses  (average  grade),  90  cents  or 

$1.00  a  day $540-$6.oo  a  week. 

D.  Medium  grade,   12  cents  per  hour, 

$1.00  a  day $6.00  a  week. 

E.  Feathers  and  foliage,  $5.00  average; 

in  season $6.oo-$io  a  week. 

Flower  makers  interviewed  by  Miss  Sergeant 
happened  all  to  be  skilled  workers  who  had  served 
a  three  years'  apprenticeship.  Four  reported  the 
following  wages: 

I.  Maker  of  fine  flowers;  aged  thirty- 
eight;  twenty-one  years  in  trade; 

is  now   head  woman   in   small 

factory  at  f  1.20  per  day  or $7.20  a  week. 

II.    Ostrich  feathers,  supplemented  by 

wheat  making;  aged  forty;  60 

cents  to  $1.00  a  day $3.6o-$6.oo  a  week. 

III.     Feathers  and  flowers;  aged  thirty; 

seventeen   years   in   trade   and 

seven  years  in  same  shop;  counts 

on  80  cents  per  day  the   year 

round,  and  on  $1.40  in  season.,  .l4.80-f8.40  a  week. 
IV.     Rose    maker;    aged    twenty-four; 

eight     years'    experience    since 

apprenticeship.   Total  for  twelve 

weeks,   shown   in  her   book   of 

earnings,  $61.86  or  about $5.16  a  week. 

If  we  may  judge  from  these  few  instances, 
backed  by  the  statements  of  those  familiar  with 

163 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

the  trade,  fioa  week  is  a  rare  wage,  while  a  large 
number  doubtless  earn  less  than  $5.00.  Neverthe- 
less, United  States  census  figures  already  quoted 
showed  that  about  40  per  cent  of  the  workers  earned 
less  than  $5.00  in  a  busy  week  in  the  year,  while 
only  about  1 3  per  cent  received  $10  or  more.  The 
census  average  in  the  United  States  for  all  flower 
makers  sixteen  years  of  age  and  over  was  $6.20. 
Data  about  French  flower  makers'  earnings  are  not 
comprehensive  enough  to  be  comparable  and  yet 
they  do  not  prove  that  the  scale  in  Paris  compared 
with  New  York  payrolls,  is  as  low  as  the  American 
manufacturers  claim. 

COST  OF  LIVING 

In  estimating  the  comparative  value  of  wages 
it  is  important  to  know  the  cost  of  living  in  Paris. 
While  these  were  difficult  data  to  obtain  during  so 
brief  and  limited  an  investigation,  certain  illus- 
trative information  was  secured  as  fairly  repre- 
sentative of  conditions  there.  The  secretary  of 
the  women's  union  in  the  trade  gave  the  following 
food  budget  for  factory  workers  living  alone.  She 
called  it  the  budget  of  the  "rush  season,"  implying 
that  food  must  be  reduced  when  the  season  is  over. 

Breakfast $.03 

Lunch — Soup 02 

Cutlet 08 

Wine 02 

Bread 01 

Vegetable  and  dessert 03 

Total 16 

164 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

Afternoon — Bread  and  chocolate 02 

Dinner— Meat 06 

Bread 01 

Cheese  or  fruit 03 

Wine 02 

Total 12 

Total  food  per  day $.33 

This  is  an  estimate  based,  to  be  sure,  on  the  sort 
of  reliable  knowledge  which  the  secretary  of  a 
trade  union  is  likely  to  possess,  but  it  does  not 
represent  actual  expenditures.  The  budget  of  a 
woman  who  made  flowers  at  home  is  interesting 
because  it  is  real,  and  not  estimated.  She  was 
evidently,  however,  exceptionally  economical,  and 
must  have  been  deprived  of  many  real  necessities. 
She  was  a  widow  of  sixty-two  who  earned  $60  a 
year  (20  cents  a  day)  making  small  flowers,  and 
received  in  addition  $3.00  per  month,  or  $36  a 
year  from  the  city.  This  "Assistance  Publique" 
had  been  given  her  since  the  death  of  a  brother 
who  had  formerly  helped  her  by  a  small  regular 
contribution.  For  the  love  of  old  associations  she 
lived  in  an  expensive  district,  but  her  one  room 
was  very  small.  It  was  spotless  and  shiny,  for  her 
rent  and  her  soap  were  her  only  extravagances. 
She  preferred  "to  go  hungry  rather  than  to  do 
without  soap."  She  never  went  out  except  for 
necessary  errands.  Clothes  were  given  her  occa- 
sionally; she  never  bought  them.  In  the  year 
preceding  the  interview  she  said  she  had  made  over 

165 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

more  than  two  dozen  pairs  of  old  stockings.  She 
had  bought  almost  no  meat  except  an  occasional 
four  cents'  worth  for  soup,  which  was  her  chief 
diet.     Her  yearly  budget  follows: 

Bread,  3  cents  per  day $10.95 

Milk,  2  cents  per  day 7 .  30 

Coffee,  20  cents  per  month 2.40 

Sugar,  1  kilo  a  year 1 .  68 

Vegetables,  potatoes  or  cress,  2  cents  per  day 7.30 

Cheese  or  egg,  2  cents  per  day 7 .  30 

Soap,  washing  soda,  20  cents  per  month 2.40 

Kerosene,  3  litres  a  week,  5  months  of  a  year 6.00 

Butter,  8  cents  per  week 4. 16 

Total  expenditure  for  food $49.49 

Rent  per  year 34.00 

Total  yearly  budget $83.49 

Total  yearly  income $96.00 

Comparison  between  the  cost  of  living  in  New 
York  and  in  Paris  would  be  impossible  with  so 
little  data  on  this  subject  for  either  city. 

One  method  of  comparison  is  to  ascertain  the 
rank  of  the  artificial  flower  industry  among  other 
occupations  for  women  in  the  two  cities.  In  New 
York  the  flower  makers'  earnings  are  approxi- 
mately equal  to  the  general  scale  for  all  manufactur- 
ing pursuits  grouped  together.  In  Paris,  flower 
making  seems  to  rank  among  the  better  paid  trades. 
Dressmaking  is  the  most  important  occupation  for 
Parisian  women.  It  is  said  that  in  the  large  es- 
tablishments the  majority  earn  60  cents  a  day,  and 

166 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

the  highest  daily  wage  to  workroom  hands  is  80 
cents,  $1.00,  or  $1.20.  The  small  dressmaking 
shops  pay  from  40  to  80  cents.  Similar  rates  ap- 
parently prevail  in  the  printing  trades  and  in 
millinery.  In  cotton  mills  the  earnings  are  less. 
In  state  factories  where  tobacco  and  matches  are 
manufactured  the  workers  are  organized  and  aver- 
age $1.00  a  day,  a  wage  said  to  be  higher  than  in 
other  trades.*  The  flower  makers'  earnings  ap- 
parently do  not  suffer  by  comparison  with  these 
other  occupations  except  in  the  case  of  workers  on 
tobacco  and  matches  in  state  factories.  Of  course, 
in  Paris  as  in  New  York,  the  low  earnings  of  women 
workers  are  a  grave  social  problem.  "In  Paris  a 
worker  who  earns  75  cents  a  day  may  be  considered 
well  paid "  (in  comparison  with  the  general  level 
of  women's  earnings),  writes  a  student  of  social 
conditions. t  "Nevertheless,  if  unemployment  in 
slack  season  (105  days  per  year  including  Sundays 
and  holidays)  be  discounted,  the  annual  earnings 
for  the  260  remaining  days  do  not  exceed  $195  or 
about  53  cents  per  day.  If  the  woman  allows  18 
cents  each  for  two  principal  meals,  a  low  estimate, 
certainly,  if  her  rent  is  $30  per  year  and  her  light 
costs  only  $2.50,  with  certain  necessary  expenses 
she  will  be  unable  to  make  the  two  ends  meet  at  the 
end  of  the  year. 

*  These  statements  were  made  to  Miss  Sergeant  by  Mile.  Milhaud 
and  were  supported  by  references  to  L.  M.  Campain,  La  Femme  dans 
les  organisations  ouvrieres;  Milhaud,  L'Ouvriere  en  France;  Bul- 
letin de  l'office  du  Travail,  etc.,  and  P.  de  Maroussem,  Le  Vetement 
a  Paris,  p.  520. 

t  Benoist,  Les  ouvrieres  de  l'aiguille  a  Paris,  p.  35. 

167 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 
HOME  WORK 

Home  workers  outnumber  shop  employes  in  the 
flower  trade  in  Paris,  as  they  do  in  New  York;  and, 
as  in  New  York,  conditions  in  the  shops  cannot 
be  thoroughly  understood  if  the  home  workers 
are  left  out  of  account.  Between  the  home-work 
system  in  Paris  and  in  New  York,  however,  the 
differences  are  marked.  First  is  the  fact  that  the 
French  home  worker  is  not  at  the  bottom  of  the 
scale  from  the  point  of  view  of  skill.  Of  2 1 1  home 
workers  investigated  by  Mile.  Milhaud,  147,  or 
70  per  cent,  had  been  in  flower  shops  before  work- 
ing at  home;  half  of  these  had  worked  more  than 
five  years  in  shops,  in  addition  to  the  time  of  their 
apprenticeship.  The  length  of  this  employment  is 
in  striking  contrast  to  the  practice  in  New  York, 
where  of  the  mothers  found  engaged  in  the  indus- 
try at  home  only  8  per  cent  had  ever  worked  in 
flower  shops.  Expert  work  is  by  no  means  un- 
common among  Parisian  home  workers,  while  in 
New  York  the  typical  home  work  is  of  the  cheapest 
grade.  Home  work  is  indeed  more  ingrained  in 
life  and  custom  in  Paris  than  in  New  York.  The 
home  worker  who  has  learned  a  trade  before  her 
marriage  continues  it  afterward  in  a  spirit  of  in- 
terest in  her  work  and  pride  in  her  skill  which  pre- 
vents many  of  the  evils  of  "  sweating  "  found  among 
the  unskilled  workers  in  New  York  City  tenements. 

The  second  difference  between  New  York  and 
Paris  is  the  cleanliness  and  attractiveness  of  the 

168 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

rooms  of  the  Parisian  home  workers.  This  is  said 
to  be  more  noticeable  among  flower  makers  than 
among  workers  in  other  industries. 

The  third  marked  difference  is  that,  whereas  in 
New  York  nearly  half  the  home  workers  investi- 
gated were  found  to  be  children  under  sixteen 
years  of  age,  in  Paris  the  work  of  children  still  in 
school,  under  twelve  or  thirteen  years  of  age,  was 
an  almost  unknown  occurrence.  Mile.  Milhaud 
could  recall  only  one  case,  a  child  seven  years  old, 
of  very  poor  family,  who  was  kept  out  of  school  to 
work.  She  knew  of  a  boy  of  eleven  who  helped 
after  school,  and  of  two  children  who  helped  on 
Thursday,  the  day  of  their  half  holiday.  If  these 
facts  are  typical  (and  they  are  the  statements  of 
an  investigator  of  long  experience),  this  absence  of 
child  labor  is  doubtless  due  in  large  measure  to 
the  superior  grade  of  work  in  Paris.  1 1  is  the  cheap 
quality  of  the  flowers  made  in  the  tenements  of 
New  York  that  makes  possible  the  use  of  the  un- 
skilled fingers  of  little  children. 

Of  208  Parisian  home  workers  reporting  on  this 
point,  44  were  single  women,  41  widows,  four 
divorced  or  deserted  married  women,  and  1 1 9 
married  women  living  with  their  husbands.  The 
husbands  of  55  of  these  latter  were  workingmen, 
employed  mainly  in  skilled  and  well-paid  occupa- 
tions, such  as  jewelry,  flower  making,  machinery, 
and  printing.  Their  wives'  wages  were  often 
supplementary  and  not  indispensable.  In  about  12 
cases  the  workers  were  the  wives  of  day  laborers, 

169 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

and  their  earnings,  although  supplementary,  were 
necessary.  Statistics  were  not  given  for  the  re- 
mainder of  the  group  of  married  women.  Of  the 
41  widows,  18  shared  the  home  responsibilities 
with  another  member  of  the  family,  14  lived  alone 
and  were  self-supporting,  and  nine  were  heads  of 
households  with  old  people  or  children  depending 
upon  them  for  support.  Of  the  single  women,  28 
lived  at  home  and  their  earnings  supplemented  the 
family  income,  eight  lived  alone  and  were  obliged 
to  be  self-supporting,  and  eight  helped  in  the  sup- 
port of  others. 

Some  home  workers  secure  the  flowers  directly 
from  the  factory,  and  it  is  said  that  piece-work 
rates  for  these  flowers  equal  shop  rates  for  the  same 
model.  A  large  number,  however,  get  their 
orders  from  the  entrepreneur,  who  "farms  out" 
work,  thus  saving  the  employer  much  time  and 
trouble.  The  contractor  is  hated  by  the  work- 
ers, who  believe  that  she  makes  great  profits  by 
forcing  their  wages  down.  Often,  however,  the 
contractor  is  very  poor;  her  percentage  is  said 
to  be  small  and  the  worker  may  earn  as  much  as 
though  she  had  spent  time  going  to  the  factory  for 
her  materials. 

Differences  in  the  grades  of  flowers  are  so  great 
that  a  comparison  of  piece-work  rates  in  New  York 
and  in  Paris  is  futile.  Unless  we  know  how  long  it 
takes  to  make  a  flower,  the  rate  per  piece  is  mean- 
ingless as  a  contribution  to  wage  statistics.  But  a 
glance  through  a  long  list  of  Parisian  rates  reveals 

170 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

prices  very  like  those  reported  in  New  York  tene- 
ments. For  example,  home  workers  in  New  York 
frequently  stated  such  rates  as  3  cents  a  gross  for 
cheap  violets,  and  5,  10,  or  15  cents  for  more 
elaborate  ones.  The  Paris  list  showing  piece-work 
rates  for  violets  is  as  follows: 

Quality                              .                         Rates  per  gross 

For  decoration 6  cents 

Parma,  first  quality,  large 20  cents 

Parma,  first  quality,  small 18  cents 

Parma,  first  quality,  black 15  cents 

Parma,  ordinary 5  cents 

Russian  violets 1  cent 

In  judging  the  earnings  of  French  home  workers, 
it  should  be  remembered  how  large  a  proportion  of 
those  interviewed  in  the  investigation  had  been 
employed  in  factories  before  pursuing  the  occupa- 
tion at  home,  and  were  considered  skilled  flower 
makers.  The  government  investigators  in  Paris 
believed  that  this  proportion  of  women  who  had 
worked  in  shops  was  typical  throughout  the  home 
industry,  and  that  the  statistics  of  earnings  given 
on  page  172  (Table  32)  were  representative  of 
home  workers  generally  in  this  trade. 

More  than  half  of  the  women,  48,  earned  from 
$30  to  $90  in  a  year;  24,  or  slightly  more  than 
a  fourth,  earned  more  than  $100.  The  report 
shows  in  greater  detail  that  one  rose  maker  earned 
$360  and  one  maker  of  wild  flowers  (le  naturel) 
about   $285,   both    exceptional.    Of  the  women 

171 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

TABLE     32. — YEARLY     EARNINGS     OF     85     PARISIAN 

WOMEN  WORKING  AT  HOME  ALONE,  ON  THREE 

SPECIALTIES  IN    ARTIFICIAL  FLOWERS 


Yearly  earnings 

HOME  WORKERS  WHOSE  YEAR- 
LY EARNINGS  WERE  AS  SPEC- 
IFIED FROM  WORK  ON 

Total 

"Natu- 
ral" 
flowers 

Roses 

Small 
flowers 

$30  and  not  over  $90  . 
Over  $90  and  not  over  $100 
Overfioo    .... 

9 

5 

10 

21 

5 

14 

18 
3 

48 
24 

Total    .... 

24 

40 

21 

85 

who  had  fellow  workers  in  making  the  flowers 
at  home,  the  government  investigator  estimated 
that  slightly  more  than  a  fourth  earned  from 
$30  to  I90  in  a  year,  and  three-fourths  earned 
from  $90  to  $160  or  more.  All  these  statistics 
must  be  used  cautiously,  for  the  difficulty  of  es- 
timating the  yearly  income  of  a  seasonal  worker  is 
doubtless  as  great  in  Paris  as  in  New  York.  The 
custom  of  keeping  a  book  of  earnings  is,  how- 
ever, very  general  among  French  flower  makers, 
and  as  the  data  were  in  many  cases  secured 
from  these  written  records,  the  inaccuracies  are 
minimized.  Nevertheless,  it  is  probable  that 
Table  33,  showing  the  daily  wages  in  the  busy 
season  instead  of  a  yearly  wage,  is  more  exact,  as 
no  estimate  of  lost  time  is  needed  in  connection 
with  it. 


172 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 


TABLE  33. — DAILY    EARNINGS    IN    THE   BUSY  SEASON 

OF    79    PARISIAN    WOMEN    WORKING   AT    HOME 

ALONE    ON   THREE   SPECIALTIES    IN 

ARTIFICIAL    FLOWERS 


HOME   WORKERS   WHOSE    DAILY 

EARNINGS    WERE    AS    SPECI- 

Daily earnings 

FIED    FROM 

WORK   ON 

Total 

"Natu- 

ral" 

Roses 

Small 

Others  » 

flowers 

flowers 

20  cents  or  less     . 

1 

1 

4 

3 

9 

Over  20  cents  and  not  over 

40  cents    .... 

3 

8 

9 

6 

26 

Over  40  cents  and  not  over 

60  cents 

3 

1 1 

2 

4 

20 

Over  60  cents  and  not  over 

80  cents    .... 

7 

4 

1 

4 

16 

Over  80  cents  and  not  over 

$1.00         .... 

2 

3 

1 

6 

Over  $1.00  .... 

2 

2 

Total    .... 

16 

29 

16 

18 

79 

a  Includes  foliage,  fruit,  feathers,  and  flowers  for  decoration,  cellu- 
loid and  bead  flowers. 

The  "median"  wage, — half  the  workers  earning 
less, — according  to  this  table,  is  between  41  and  60 
cents  a  day,  or  more  specifically,  according  to  the 
detailed  data,  between  41  and  50  cents.  These 
figures  would  indicate  roughly  a  median  weekly 
wage  of  $2.40  to  $3.00.  The  corresponding  median 
wage  in  New  York  lies  between  $4.00  and  $5.00, 
and  that  not  for  one  worker  but  for  a  household. 
The  Paris  figures  show  individual  earnings. 

Details  of  the  earnings  and  the  experience  of  one 
or  two  of  the  workers  included  in  these  tables  are 

173 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

illuminating.*  One  was  that  of  a  girl,  twenty- 
eight  years  old,  who  made  the  best  quality  roses. 
She  had  worked  for  eleven  years  at  Maison  M.,  an 
excellent  house,  which  employs  60  workers.  The 
best  workers  are  paid  at  the  rate  of  14  cents  per 
hour  in  the  shop.  This  girl  decided  to  work  at 
home  because  she  was  over-tired.  Her  brother 
was  a  traveling  salesman,  and  her  mother,  whom 
she  helped  to  support,  a  widow.  She  earned  in  a 
year  less  at  home  than  in  the  factory,  but  ex- 
plained this  as  due  not  to  differences  in  rates  but 
to  a  bad  year  for  the  trade,  ill  health,  and  lack  of 
the  overtime  she  would  have  had  in  the  workroom. 
Statements  of  her  earnings  follow. 

Monthly  Earnings  at  Home  of  a  Parisian  Flower  Maker 
from  November,  1907,  to  October,  1908 

(November $ 

\  December ***** 

1908     January 29 .  29 

February 29.00 

March 29 .  65 

April 20 .  00 

May 13.00 

June (No  work) 

July 14.00 

August (No  work) 

September 1 1 .  17 

October  (1  week) 7 .  54 

Total  earnings  for  the  period $185 .  79 

*  Miss  Sergeant  interviewed  a  home  worker  who  made  bead  flowers 
and  thus  described  the  conditions  of  her  home  and  her  work: 

"Mme.  L.:  Pretty  woman,  twenty-eight  years  old,  living  in  tiny 
apartment  of  three  neat  rooms,  near  the  cemetery  known  as  Pere- 

*74 


[907 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

During  the  period  of  nearly  a  year  this  flower 
maker  worked  only  31  weeks.  Her  average  week- 
ly earnings  when  at  work  were,  therefore,  $5.99. 

Sample  Month,  Showing  Weekly  Earnings  at  Home 
of  the  Same  Flower  Maker 

1908  Week  of  January  4th $3 .30 

Week  of  January  1  ith 8.40 

Week  of  January  18th 8.54 

Week  of  January  25th 9.05 

Total  for  January $29 . 29 

Monthly  Earnings  in  Workroom  of  the  Same  Flower 

Maker  from  December,  1906,  to 

October,  1907,  Inclusive 

1906  December '. $28 .  88 

1907  January 2569 

February 26. 10 

March 25.55 

April 21 .75 

May 13 .03 

June *. 21 .92 

July 36.51 

August (No  work) 

September 28.98 

October 9.61 

Total  income  for  1 1  months $238.02 

Average  monthly  wage  (excluding  August)       23 .80 

Lachaise.  Husband  earns  $1.00  per  day;  Mme.  L.  earns  from  20 
to  60  cents  per  day  in  making  bead  flowers  for  funeral  wreaths. 
Says  pay  for  leaves  and  wire  frames  is  so  poor  that  when,  as  sometimes 
happens,  she  has  a  private  order  for  a  wreath,  she  buys  them  ready 
made.  She  works  on  Sundays  and  holidays.  Whole  family  is  asleep 
by  7:30  p.  m.  and  up  at  5:30  a  m.  Counts  on  nine  or  ten  hours' 
work  per  day.     Five  children  under  seven  years  (two  boys,  three 

175 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

Thus  she  earned  sometimes  as  little  as  $3.30  in 
a  week,  and  at  other  times  more  than  $9.00.  Her 
case  reminds  one  of  the  skilled  brancher  inter- 
viewed in  New  York  whose  wages  at  home  ap- 
proached shop  rates  more  nearly  than  is  usual 
among  home  workers,  but  whose  income  from 
home  work  tended  to  fluctuate  just  as  did  the 
earnings  of  this  Parisian  girl. 

Another  was  a  woman  forty-five  years  old, 
whose  husband,  a  tinman,  earned  $1.00  a  day. 
They  had  a  daughter  of  eighteen,  a  vestmaker, 
who  had  earned  45  cents  a  day  during  the  six 
weeks  just  passed  but  who  before  that  had  earned 
only  30  cents.  There  were  three  other  children — 
a  boy  of  sixteen  years  whom  the  parents  supported, 
a  boy  of  thirteen,  apprenticed,  and  a  boy  of  four 
at  school.  The  total  family  earnings  were  $501 .52, 
and  of  these  slightly  more  than  $100  was  earned 
by  the  mother  by  work  at  home  on  flowers.  The 
figures  on  the  opposite  page  show  her  monthly 
earnings,  making  foliage  and  occasionally  lilacs. 

These  earnings  seem  to  be  approximately  equal 
to  the  wages  of  home  workers  in  New  York,  except 
that  the  work  was  steadier  throughout  the  year 
than  is  usual  here.  To  make  flowers  all  summer 
would  seem  exceptionally  good  fortune  to  a  New 
York  home  worker. 

girls;  two  are  babies  too  young  to  walk)  and  another  on  way.  Old 
invalid  mother,  who  was  formerly  a  washerwoman.  Two  elder  chil- 
dren in  school  but  return  for  lunch.  Two  boys  sleep  in  room  (sepa- 
rate beds)  with  grandmother;  mother  and  father  and  three  youngest 
(in  cribs)  sleep  in  larger  bedroom.  In  tiny  kitchen  they  live  and 
work.     Rooms  are  so  clean  that  they  are  attractive." 

176 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

i 
Monthly  Earnings  of  a  Parisian  Home  Worker 
on  Artificial  Flowers  from  November,  1907, 
to  October,   1908,   Inclusive 

1907  November $8.58 

December 13 .90 

1908  January 13 .92 

February 8.50 

March 6.35 

April 7.74 

May 8.34 

June 10.50 

July 8.81 

August 6.95 

September 7.21 

October 6. 18 

Total  earnings  for  12  months $106.98 

Average  weekly  wages 2 .06 

The  hours  of  work  are  always  so  variable  when 
a  woman  works  at  home  that  they  defy  statistical 
treatment.  Nevertheless,  the  French  investiga- 
tors report  the  following  on  this  point : 

TABLE    34. — DAILY    HOURS    OF    WORK    OF    PARISIAN 
HOME   WORKERS   ON    ARTIFICIAL    FLOWERS 


Daily  hours  of  work 

WOMEN   WORKING   AT  HOME 

THE  NUMBER  OF  HOURS 

SPECIFIED 

Number 

Per  cent 

Less  than  10  hours        .... 
10  hours  and  not  more  than  12  hours    . 
More  than  12  hours       .... 

69 

77 
18 

42 

47 
1 1 

Total 

164 

100 

177 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

Hours  of  labor  in  flower  shops  seldom  exceed 
ten.  This  is  the  legal  limit.  No  woman  and  no 
minor  under  eighteen  may  work  more  than  ten 
hours  a  day  or  after  9  p.  m.  because  night  work, 
in  the  words  of  a  French  decree,  "ruins  health 
and  disorganizes  family  life."  Formerly  an  ex- 
ception to  this  law  was  permitted  in  dressmaking, 
millinery,  lingerie,  and  the  fur  trade,  whereby 
women  over  eighteen  in  these  seasonal  trades 
might  work  until  11  p.  m.  sixty  days  in  the  year, 
but  by  a  decree  in  1910,  this  exception  is  now 
limited  to  mourning  millinery  and  mourning 
clothing  for  women  and  children.* 

The  law  provides  for  one  full  holiday  in 
seven  days,  and  a  rest  period  of  one  hour  in  each 
day's  work.  The  employment  of  children  under 
twelve  is  prohibited  and  children  who  work  before 
they  are  thirteen  must  have  secured  a  school  cer- 
tificate and  a  doctor's  certificate.  Other  sections 
of  the  law  concern  ventilation,  cleanliness,  guard- 
ing of  machinery,  and  indemnity  for  accident. 
The  manufacturer  of  artificial  flowers  is  not 
tempted  to  violate  the  law  by  lengthening  the  day 
in  the  shop.  It  is  more  convenient  to  have  the 
work  taken  home,  and  the  workers  may,  and  do, 
continue  to  make  flowers  "until  midnight  or 
later." 

Legal  regulation  of  the  home-work  system  in 
France  is  brief  in  the  telling.    The  government 

♦United  States  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor.  Bulletin 
of  the  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  89,  p.  154.     July,  1910. 

178 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

neither  regulates  nor  inspects  the  conditions  in 
these  home  workrooms,  except  when  outsiders  are 
employed  for  wages.  This  does  not  mean,  how- 
ever, that  no  regulation  is  needed.  That  intelli- 
gent and  thoughtful  workers,  at  least,  realize  that 
home  work  is  a  dangerous  factor  in  their  trade,  is 
indicated  by  one  of  the  small  notices  printed  and 
distributed  by  the  flower  makers'  union  which 
reads:  "Avoid  women  contractors  and  work  in  the 
workroom.     Your  earnings  will  increase." 

TRADE   UNIONISM 

Trade  union  organization  is  not  a  popular  idea 
among  French  flower  makers.  They  are  said  to 
share  with  milliners  the  reputation  of  being  the 
most  light-headed  and  frivolous  of  the  working 
women  of  Paris.  Nevertheless,  a  few  at  least 
have  shown  themselves  capable  of  devotion  to  the 
cause  represented  in  the  labor  movement. 

Two  labor  unions  exist  in  the  industry  in  Paris. 
The  largest  and  most  important,  T Industrie 
Florale,  is  called  the  men's  union  though  theoret- 
ically for  both  sexes.  The  women  members,  how- 
ever, are  few.  In  1896  a  women's  union,  Fleur- 
istes  et  Plumassieres  (flower  and  feather  makers), 
was  founded  with  the  aid  of  1' Industrie  Florale. 
It  is  directed  by  two  intelligent  flower  makers,  but 
its  membership  is  not  increasing.  Between  this 
organization  and  the  men's  union  is  a  difference  of 
opinion  as  to  whether  it  is  better  to  have  men  and 
women  organized  together  in  one  union.    The 

179 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

women  consider  that  fewer  women  would  join  and 
that  in  any  case  their  interests  would  suffer  in 
uniting  men  and  women  in  one  organization.  The 
men  do  not  agree  with  them  and  in  support  of  their 
contention  that  women  should  be  members  of  the 
men's  union  they  cite  the  decision  of  the  socialist 
congress  of  Amiens  that  only  one  union  in  a  single 
trade  might  join  the  labor  exchange.  The  women's 
union  has  been  weakened  by  this  contention,  and 
also  by  its  failure  to  maintain  a  co-operative  work- 
room which  the  women  had  organized  after  long 
planning  and  for  which  they  had  raised  the  sum  of 
a  thousand  francs.  Its  financial  failure  after  brief 
trial  was  attributed  by  some  of  its  critics  to  lack 
of  capital,  by  others  to  lack  of  unity  of  action  and 
business  training  among  the  women  organizers. 
Few  in  number  as  the  union  members  are,  how- 
ever, and  discouraging  as  some  of  their  efforts 
have  been,  they  are  much  in  earnest  in  their  desire 
to  help  other  women. 

Mademoiselle  B.,  a  leader  in  the  women's  union, 
was  one  of  the  organizers  of  this  co-operative  fac- 
tory. She  also  taught  a  trade  class  for  apprentices 
under  the  auspices  of  the  union.  She  is  now,  after 
twenty-one  years'  experience,  earning  |i  .20  a  day. 
Her  advanced  ideas,  she  says,  have  never  hurt  her 
chances  for  employment.  She  has  adopted  a  child 
of  eight,  who  is  destined  by  her  to  be  a  flower 
maker  and  "to  help  the  cause  of  women." 

A  pretty  girl  of  twenty-four,  Mademoiselle  M., 
is  another  flower  maker  who  is  absorbed  in  social 

180 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

ideas.  Although  highly  skilled,  wrote  the  inves- 
tigator who  met  her,  very  "serious,"  and  spend- 
ing nothing  on  frivolity,  she  has  never  been  able 
to  be  wholly  self-supporting.  Her  parents  have 
always  provided  her  with  clothing.  They  now 
live  in  Algiers  and  she  might  live  there  and  not 
work,  but  she  prefers  to  support  herself  in  Paris, 
and  "help  her  fellow  workers  to  liberate  them- 
selves." She  occupies  a  small  room  with  a  girl 
who  is  studying  at  the  Sorbonne.  Her  food  costs 
her  50  cents  a  day. 

Of  the  workers'  attitude  toward  the  employers  the 
investigator  wrote,  "All  workers  interviewed  say 
that  they  live  in  terror  of  the  employer,  and  don't 
dare  to  protest  against  a  bad  model,*  or  complain 
if  they  are  not  earning  enough.  Madeline,  a 
pretty  girl  who  believes  in  unions,  told  how  she 
once  persuaded  her  fellow  workers  to  refuse  to 
make  a  very  bad  model;  that  is,  one  on  which  the 
piece  rates  were  unfair.  The  forewoman,  secretly 
sympathetic,  encouraged  them  in  rebellion.  Made- 
line described  the  harrowing  day  in  which  they  all 
sat  idle  and  trembling,  the  electric  bell  constantly 
ringing  to  call  the  forewoman  to  the  office,  the 

*  The  models  are  created  by  the  employer,  by  the  forewoman,  or 
sometimes  by  a  clever  worker.  The  commissionaire,  or  wholesale 
agent,  then  examines  it,  and  if  he  accepts  it  a  piece  rate  of  payment  for 
making  it  is  fixed  in  consultation  between  employer,  forewoman,  and 
commissionaire,  according  to  the  time  taken  by  the  most  skilled 
worker  to  make  it.  The  slower  workers  always  suffer  in  consequence. 
In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  recall  the  plan  used  in  a  book- 
binding establishment  in  New  York.  At  the  suggestion  of  the  women's 
trade  union,  the  piece  rates  on  a  new  job  are  fixed  not  by  timing  the 
most  rapid  worker,  but  by  averaging  the  rate  of  production  of  three 
workers,  one  rapid,  one  slow,  and  one  of  average  speed. 

181 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 

employer  finally  coming  up  to  swear  at  them.  He 
was  in  the  end  obliged  to  yield,  but  not  before  he 
had  made  the  forewoman  confess  that  she  had  sup- 
ported the  girls  in  their  insubordination.  Even 
when  obliged  to  leave  because  of  low  pay,  the 
girls  are  afraid  to  give  the  reason  to  employers." 
Yet  in  spite  of  the  helplessness  of  the  individual 
woman  worker  and  the  courageous  effort  of  the 
stronger  among  them,  the  "pretty  and  frivolous" 
and  the  "sweated"  workers  (sometimes  these  are 
one  and  the  same)  are  quite  unconvinced  of  the 
desirability  of  joining  the  union. 

The  demands  made  by  the  union  are  shown 
most  clearly  in  small  notices,  "papillons,"  2  by  3 
inches  in  size,  which  are  distributed  widely  by  the 
men's  union,  in  their  effort  to  educate  the  workers 
in  ideas  of  organization  and  solidarity. 

"  Flower  makers,  foliage  makers,  feather  workers!  If  you 
wish  to  see  your  condition  improve,  the  only  method  is  to 
organize  yourselves." 

"Instead  of  doing  bad  work  (sabotage),  let  us  do  artistic 
work." 

"Everything  is  going  up  but  our  wages;  let  us  bestir 
ourselves." 

"English  workmen  work  slowly.  Let's  follow  their  ex- 
ample." 

"Every  birth  in  a  worker's  family  increases  the  sum  of 
producers  and  of  misery." 

"Every  birth  in  a  rich  man's  home  increases  the  number  of 
parasites." 

"Let's   limit   the   number  of  our  children  unless [a 

manufacturer's  name]  will  provide  them  with  nursing 
bottles." 

182 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

"A  porter  [in  a  factory]  likes  beefsteak  as  well  as  a  dyer 
does,  and  a  dyer  likes  it  as  well  as  his  employer." 

"We  must  limit  the  number  of  apprentices  and  young 
untrained  workers"  (petites  mains). 

"  Every  Union  member  should  also  be  a  member  of  a  co- 
operative society." 

"We  are  laid  off  because  we  work  too  hard  in  the  good 
season." 

"Avoid  women  contractors  and  work  in  the  workroom. 
Your  earnings  will  increase." 

"When  we  are  obliged  to  work  overtime  we  must  demand 
50%  more." 

"Union  makes  the  strength  of  Capitalism.  Solidarity 
amongst  the  workers  will  counter-balance  this." 

"Workrooms  must  be  periodically  disinrected." 

"No  trade  is  more  adapted  than  ours  for  earning  money, 
for  nothing  is  more  poetic  than  Flowers  and  Birds?  ?  ?" 

"Socrates  drank  out  of  his  hand.  When  we  are  laid  off  we 
have  a  glass,  but  nothing  to  put  in  it." 

APPRENTICESHIP  AND  TRAINING 

The  interest  of  the  women's  union  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  class  for  apprentices  shows  how  im- 
,  portant,  from  the  workers'  point  of  view,  is  the 
opportunity  to  be  well  trained  for  the  trade.  It 
is  in  the  variety  of  opportunities  to  secure  this 
training  that  Paris  conditions  offer  the  greatest 
contrast  to  New  York.  In  France  a  young  girl  1/ 
may  learn  the  trade  in  one  of  four  ways:  by  ap- 
prenticeship in  the  workroom,  by  an  apprentice- 
ship to  a  sub-contractor,  by  learning  from  her 
flower-making  parents,  or  by  attending  a  class,  a 
school,  or  a  convent.  Of  199  home  workers  ques- 
tioned on  this  point  by  Mile.  Milhaud  only  21 

183 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

had  served  no  apprenticeship.  Of  the  remaining 
178,  77,  or  about  two  in  five,  had  learned  in  the 
workroom;  55,  or  nearly  a  third,  had  been  taught 
by  sub-contractors;  34,  or  nearly  one-fifth,  by 
parents;  and  only  12  had  learned  in  classes, 
schools,  or  convents. 

Classes  for  flower  makers  are  held  in  two  mu- 
nicipal trade  schools.  The  pupils  are  chosen  by 
competitive  examination  at  the  close  of  the  Ecole 
Primaire,  at  the  age  of  twelve  or  thirteen  years. 
Instruction  is  free  and  the  course  lasts  three  years. 
Small  scholarships  are  provided  for  some  of  the 
pupils.  General  school  work  is  given  in  the  morn- 
ing and  trade  work  in  the  afternoon.  The 
teachers  of  the  two  classes  visited  had  been  in 
trade  but  had  had  no  recent  workroom  experience. 
The  teacher  of  one  class  said  that  the  three  years 
in  the  school  were  equivalent  to  one  year  in  the 
workroom,  but  that  although  on  first  entering  the 
trade  their  pupils  did  not  compare  favorably  with 
apprentices  who  had  had  three  years  of  shop 
practice,  later  they  were  likely  to  outstrip  them, 
because  of  the  better  foundation  given  in  the 
school  work.  These  classes  in  flower  making 
attract  fewer  pupils  than  other  classes  in  the 
school.  Employers  have  nothing  good  to  say  of 
them.  All  who  were  interviewed  regarded  them 
as  worthless.  "Some  statements  are  open  to 
discussion,"  said  one,  "but  this  is  as  invariable  as 
the  fact  that  day  follows  night."  Nevertheless, 
Mile.  Milhaud's  conclusion,  after  completing  her 

184 


4* 


THE    TRADE    IN    PARIS 

investigation,  was  that  statistics  proved  the 
teachers'  contention  that  their  pupils  made  rapid 
progress  in  the  trade. 

The  convent  classes  which  train  flower  makers 
are  regarded  with  bitterness  by  many  of  the 
workers,  for  the  work  is  done  by  charity  children 
who  receive  no  remuneration  and  the  manufac- 
turer pays  the  convent  but  a  small  price  for  it. 
Of  five  home  workers  trained  in  convents,  Mile. 
Milhaud,  who  interviewed  them,  reported  that 
three  were  at  work  on  badly  paid  specialties.* 

Apprenticeship  to  a  sub-contractor  is  a  form  of 
workroom  training  but  it  is  considered  undesirable 
because  of  the  cheap  grade  of  flower  handled  by 
sub-contractors.  The  form  of  training  which  em- 
ployers believe  to  be  most  valuable  is  that  given 
in  a  flower  factory  where  it  is  possible  to  see  a 
variety  of  models,  to  measure  up  to  real  trade 
demands,  and  to  acquire  speed. 

This  workroom  training  is  a  definite  system  in 
the  trade  in  Paris,  and  employers  appear  to  have 
given  much  more  attention  to  the  problem  than 
in  New  York  where  even  the  word  "apprentice- 

*  Miss  Sergeant  thus  reports  her  interview  with  two  home  workers 
trained  in  convents: 

"One  was  a  concierge  who  had  made  nothing  but  forget-me-nots 
all  her  life.  Learned  in  convent  which  worked  for  M.  Now  works 
for  a  contractor  ten  hours  per  day,  earning  25  cents  per  day;  i.  e., 
25  cents  per  gross  of  sprays.  This  includes  making,  mounting  each 
spray,  five  blossoms  and  one  leaf.  The  other  home  worker  was  of 
Italian  extraction.  She  and  her  two  sisters  learned  to  make  violets 
in  a  convent.  Makes  only  fine  black  Parma  violets  at  15  cents  per 
gross.  As  she  has  housework,  several  children,  and  a  lame  husband 
to  attend  to,  she  earns  only  10  cents  to  1 5  cents  per  day." 

.85 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

ship"  is  practically  unused  in  the  trade.  In  Paris, 
in  some  flower  shops  though  not  in  all,  an  unwritten 
and  informal  agreement  regarding  the  conditions 
of  a  child's  apprenticeship  is  made,  and  usually 
kept,  between  parents  and  employer.  Learners 
receive  10  cents  a  day  for  the  first  six  months,  with 
5  or  10  cents  raise  each  succeeding  six  months;  40 
cents  at  the  end  of  two  years;  and  usually  40, 
sometimes  50  or  60  cents,  after  three  years.  The 
forewoman  takes  charge  of  the  learners,  usually 
placing  them  next  to  experienced  workers.  Each 
process  is  taught,  and  care  is  taken  to  give  practice 
in  the  deft  movement  of  the  left  thumb  and  fore- 
finger. Later  the  apprentice  may  become  a  special- 
ist in  some  one  type  of  flower.  Although  this 
method  of  training  prevails  in  many  establish- 
ments, workrooms  are  now  found  where  "learn- 
ers" are  simply  unskilled  hands  taking  part  in  the 
production  of  cheap  flowers.  Fortunately  for  the 
French  worker  this  condition,  so  usual  in  New 
York,  is  still  exceptional  in  Parisian  shops. 

To  preserve  this  careful  system  of  training  and 
to  extend  it,  the  Employers'  Syndicate  in  1866 
organized  the  Societe  pour  TAssistance  Paternelle 
aux  Enfants  Employes  dans  les  Industries  des 
Fleurs  et  des  Plumes.  "The  object  of  the  society 
is  to  insure  a  good  trade  apprenticeship  and  to  look 
after,  help,  and  influence  for  good  by  all  means 
that  it  esteems  useful,  children  employed  as  ap- 
prentices in  the  flower  and  feather  industries." 
Apprentices  are  placed  in  workrooms  and  their 

186 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

training  is  supervised  by  delegates  of  the  society. 
Free  courses  are  offered  in  elementary  instruction 
and  design  for  all  apprentices  in  the  flower  and 
feather  houses.  Competitive  contests  are  held 
and  honorary  prizes  are  awarded  to  employers, 
teachers,  workers,  or  any  others  who  further  the 
purpose  of  the  society.  Private  boarding  houses 
are  maintained  for  young  girl  apprentices  whose 
parents  cannot  provide  for  them. 

The  contract  between  employer  and  apprentice, 
drawn  up  by  this  society,  carefully  defines  the 
details  of  training  and  its  conditions.*  The  em- 
ployer undertakes  to  teach  the  trade  "freely  and 
fully"  so  that  at  the  expiration  of  the  specified 
term  the  learner  will  be  able  to  practice  it.  He 
may  not  require  any  other  tasks  nor  send  her  on 
frequent  or  distant  errands.  He  must  supervise 
her  conduct  and  treat  her  gently  like  a  good 
father  ("un  bon  pere  de  famille").  He  must 
provide  her  with  tools  and  make  it  possible  for 
her  to  take  part  in  the  yearly  trade  competi- 
tion of  the  industry.  Moreover,  he  must  accept 
the  supervision  of  a  delegate  appointed  by  the 
society. 

The  apprentice  agrees  "to  receive  with  atten- 
tion, respect,  and  docility,  the  lessons  and  orders  of 
her  master."  If  during  her  apprenticeship  she 
loses  time  exceeding  a  fortnight,  for  illness  or  any 
other  cause,  she  agrees  to  make  it  up  after  the  end 
of  her  term.     Her  guardian  undertakes  to  use  his 

*  See  Appendix  D,  for  copy  of  contract  and  description  of  society. 

187 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

authority  to  keep  her  in  the  workroom  throughout 
the  period  named  in  the  contract,  to  allow  her  to  be 
under  the  supervision  of  the  delegates  of  the  society, 
and  generally  to  see  that  she  carries  out  all  her 
obligations  under  the  contract.  The  first  two 
months  are  a  trial  period  during  which  the  agree- 
ment may  be  annulled  by  either  side. 

The  president  of  the  society  thus  sums  up  its 
achievements  (1909) :  "  Last  year  at  this  same  date 
we  declared  at  this  same  place  that  the  apprentice- 
ship crisis  had  been  less  serious  in  our  manufacture 
than  anywhere  else,  and  we  found  the  principal 
cause  of  this  consoling  state  of  things  to  be  not 
only  in  the  absence  of  machinery,  but  above  all 
in  the  forty-three  years  of  constantly  renewed 
effort  that  our  society  has  made  to  create  for  our 
industries  an  army  of  workers  and  artists,  per- 
fectly equipped  and  always  organized  for  the 
struggle  against  foreign  competition.  We  have 
the  great  pleasure  of  announcing  that  our  re- 
cruiting has  been  really  excellent  this  year.  Our 
repeated  appeals  have  found  an  echo  in  the  homes. 
It  is  thus  that  the  number  of  our  apprenticeship 
contracts  has  notably  increased,  and  that  we  have 
300  children  now  under  the  protection  of  the 
society/' 

Workers  of  the  independent  type,  however, 
heartily  detest  this  society.  They  object  to  its 
paternalism  and  suspect  that  it  is  run  in  the 
interest  of  the  manufacturers,  who  fear  unionism 
and  wish  to  check  the  freedom  of  the  workers. 

188 


THE   TRADE    IN    PARIS 

The  workers  themselves,  in  1890,  organized  an 
evening  class  to  supply  the  training,  which  they 
say  is  too  often  neglected  in  the  workroom.  The 
class  was  held  one  evening  a  week  and  usually 
numbered  about  20,  the  teacher,  who  was  a  flower 
maker,  and  her  pupils  coming  direct  from  their 
work.  They  labored  under  the  usual  disadvan- 
tages of  an  evening  class.  At  present  it  has  been 
discontinued,  but  it  was  significant  as  voicing  their 
opinion  that  the  training  of  workers  needs  more 
attention  than  it  receives  at  present. 

As  to  the  fourth  method  of  training,  that  given 
to  children  by  flower-making  parents,  its  value 
must  necessarily  depend  upon  the  skill  of  the 
parents.  The  method  emphasizes,  however,  the 
element  of  tradition  which  is  a  marked  character- 
istic of  the  industry  in  Paris.  The  worker  brought 
up  to  love  the  trade,  to  understand  its  possibilities, 
will  have  an  efficiency  far  greater  than  the  drifter 
who  happens  to  enter  a  flowef  shop  because  she 
has  no  preference  for  any  other  occupation. 
"The  Parisian  succeeds,"  said  one  of  the  French 
employers  interviewed,  "because  of  her  ex- 
quisite taste.  Taste  is  the  most  important 
requisite  of  success.  Good  taste  and  patience  and 
love  of  the  trade — those  are  the  Parisian  tradi- 
tion." These  words  are  a  summary  and  an  ex- 
planation of  the  difference  between  flower  making 
in  New  York  and  Paris.  Unquestionably  the 
French  excel  us  in  the  making  of  a  flower  and  in 
love  of  artistic  work  in  this  industry.     Nowhere 

189 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 

is  this  difference  seen  more  clearly  than  in  the 
methods  of  teaching  learners.  It  is  upon  this 
training  of  each  new  generation  of  workers  that 
the  prosperity  of  the  trade  in  New  York  or  in 
Paris  must  depend. 


190 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  TRAINING  OF  FLOWER  MAKERS 

IN  contrast  to  the  various  methods  of  super- 
vising apprentices  in  the  artificial  flower 
trade  in  Paris,  the  training  of  flower  makers 
in  shops  in  New  York  is  usually  of  the  most  hap- 
hazard kind,  nor  do  the  workers  in  New  York 
display  that  love  of  their  art  which  is  character- 
istic of  the  Parisian  flower  maker.  I  n  the  ma jori  ty 
of  establishments  here  the  learner's  career  is  left 
to  chance,  and  no  uniformity  of  method  is  found 
even  in  the  same  shop.  Only  in  unusual  in- 
stances are  careful  plans  carried  out.  These  facts 
are  well  known  to  employers,  but  no  concerted 
action  is  taken  to  remedy  the  situation.  "The 
trouble  with  the  trade  in  this  country,"  said  one 
of  them,  "is  that  too  many  are  in  it  who  really 
know  nothing  about  it."  He  had  in  mind  em- 
ployers who  give  more  attention  to  business  man- 
agement than  to  workmanship.  Yet  unlike  some 
industries  in  which  learners  can  find  no  place, 
employers  in  this  trade  are  generally  willing  to 
engage  green  hands,  particularly  during  the  "  rush  " 
seasons,  partly  because  their  employment  reduces 
the  labor  cost  on  some  of  the  processes  for  which 
no  skill  and  very  little  practice  is  needed.     "We 

191 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

have  to  take  learners  for  small  cheap  work,"  said 
a  forewoman.  "  If  we  have  tubing  to  cut  or  small 
violets  to  make,  we  cannot  put  a  good  hand  at 
them;  the  cost  would  be  too  great. "  These  girls 
can  scarcely  be  called  learners,  for  to  do  all  the 
odd  jobs  in  a  flower  shop  which  require  no  experi- 
ence will  not  develop  a  skilled  flower  maker. 

As  methods  of  teaching  vary  so,  they  can  best 
be  described  by  discussion  of  certain  representa- 
tive shops  and  the  workers'  reports  of  their  ex- 
periences as  learners.  A  large  flower  and  feather 
factory  on  Broadway,  for  instance,  had  a  work- 
room so  organized  as  to  assure  closer  supervision 
of  learners  than  we  found  in  any  other  shop.  One 
hundred  and  fifty  girls  were  employed,  organized 
into  groups  of  three,  one  experienced  flower  maker 
having  charge  of  two  less  experienced  assistants 
who  prepared  the  petals  for  her.  The  same  girls 
learned  fancy  feather  making  when  the  flower 
season  was  over.  Learners  were  paid  $3.00  a 
week  with  an  increase  of  50  cents  in  two  weeks. 
The  forewoman  said  that  they  usually  received 
$5.00  at  the  end  of  the  first  season  and  that  it  was 
possible  to  do  fairly  good  work  at  the  end  of  the 
year,  but  that  it  took  two  years  to  make  an  expert. 
Occasionally  she  engaged  a  girl  of  fourteen,  and 
although  it  was  easier  to  teach  one  of  fourteen,  she 
preferred  girls  of  sixteen  because  the  factory  laws 
requiring  that  children  under  sixteen  must  stop 
at  5  o'clock,  a  half  hour  ahead  of  the  other  workers 
in  the  shop,  "upset  the  workroom." 

192 


A  Learner  Bringing  Lunches  to  the  Workroom 


The  Processes  of  Feather  Making 


THE   TRAINING   OF    FLOWER   MAKERS 

The  piece-work  system  was  not  adopted  in  this 
shop,  because  of  the  dissatisfaction  it  occasioned 
among  the  workers.  When  the  styles  change,  a 
girl  paid  by  the  piece  has  difficulty  in  earning  full 
wages  until  she  gets  used  to  the  new  mode,  and  as 
changes  are  frequent  complaints  would  be  many. 
It  was  probably  due  to  the  careful  system  of  super- 
vision that  the  automatic  "speeding/*  which  the 
piece-work  system  is  said  to  accomplish,  was 
found  to  be  unnecessary.  Although  this  group 
organization  has  the  appearance  of  the  contract 
system  which  has  proved  so  great  an  evil  in  other 
trades,  it  differed  from  it  in  the  very  important 
detail  that  wages  were  paid  not  by  the  head  worker 
of  the  group  but  directly  by  the  firm. 

In  an  interview  with  Jennie,  one  of  the  workers 
who  had  been  employed  in  this  shop  for  two  years, 
an  interesting  account  was  given  of  the  methods 
practiced.  She  repeated  from  her  point  of  view 
the  facts  previously  told  us  by  the  forewoman. 
She  said  that  the  work  was  carefully  planned;  that 
the  experienced  flower  maker  who  taught  the  two 
girls  was  responsible  for  their  work.  She  was 
called  their  "lady."  "When  we  take  our  work  to 
the  forewoman  she  asks  us  who  is  our  'lady'  and 
we  tell  her.  If  the  work  is  not  right  it  is  she  who  is 
scolded."  Jennie's  sister  worked  with  her  for  the 
same  "lady."  As  Jennie  had  been  there  longer, 
however,  she  did  more  of  the  difficult  work.  Of 
late  she  had  been  making  buds  for  flower  centers, 
and  crimping  chrysanthemum   petals   and   rose 

■93 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

leaves,  while  her  sister  crimped  only  the  petals  of 
simple  flowers.  Their  "lady"  put  the  petals  to- 
gether and  branched  the  flowers.  Jennie  earned 
$3.00  a  week  when  she  began.  After  two  years 
she  was  earning  $4.50.  She  hoped  soon  to  be  a 
"lady."  Visited  later  during  the  summer  she  and 
her  sister  both  said  that  they  were  then  working 
on  feathers.  The  work  was  organized  in  the  same 
way  as  it  had  been  for  flower  making,  the  two 
sisters  doing  the  preparatory  processes  of  stem- 
ming, steaming,  and  pasting. 

How  rare  is  the  careful  organization  and  method 
of  teaching  of  the  firm  just  described  is  indicated 
by  the  testimony  of  a  number  of  other  Broadway 
employers.  "I  will  tell  you  how  it  is,"  said  one 
of  them.  "In  this  country  you  take  a  girl  to 
learn  because  you  want  help — you  want  to  get  out 
the  goods.  Now  when  you  are  paying  her  $3.00, 
and  you  have  a  worker  teaching  her  who  receives 
$15,  you  naturally  have  the  learner  do  the  odd  jobs 
like  the  slipping-up  and  the  crimping  that  must  be 
done  on  the  orders  you  have  on  hand.  When  the 
girl  goes  to  another  place  she  says  she  is  experi- 
enced. They  give  her  a  rose  to  make.  Does  she 
know  how?  Certainly  not.  She  did  not  have  that 
to  do  for  us.  Then  she  loses  her  job.  That's  how 
we  are  obliged  to  teach  in  this  country."  A  second 
employer  said  that  it  took  two  years  to  learn  the 
trade  thoroughly,  but  that  girls  now-a-days  were 
not  taught  the  whole  process.  "They  learn  to  be 
pasters,  preparers,  slippers-up,  etc.     Not  one  girl 

194 


THE   TRAINING   OF    FLOWER   MAKERS 

in  io  now  knows  how  to  paper  wires  and  formerly 
learners  were  always  given  this  work.  It  pays  the 
firm  better  to  let  a  girl  do  but  one  thing.  Some- 
times she  will  be  kept  at  it  a  whole  season,  since 
she  gets  more  speed  that  way."  This  view  was 
corroborated  by  a  second  employer  who  said, 
"The  trouble  with  the  trade  at  present  is  that  if  a 
girl  is  put  at  crimping  at  first  she  is  likely  to  be 
kept  at  that  task  the  whole  time  she  is  in  business. 
It  isn't  that  we  don't  want  to  teach  her,  but  we 
must  fill  our  orders."  This  man's  method  of  en- 
gaging and  discharging  learners  showed  the  ruth- 
lessness  of  a  system  that  prevails  quite  generally 
throughout  the  trade.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
season  of  1910  he  had  taken  in  a  number  of  new 
hands,  20  at  one  time.  At  the  end  of  the  month 
he  discharged  all  but  four.  He  considered  this 
number  a  good  average,  so  many  are  the  drifters 
among  the  inexperienced.  No  system  of  training 
or  supervision  encourages  them  to  continue,  and 
the  firm  plans  to  get  rid  of  them  as  soon  as  its  rush 
weeks  are  over. 

In  a  shop  where  different  workers  were  em- 
ployed for  different  processes  the  employer  ex- 
pressed the  opinion  that  such  specialization  is 
inevitable.  "It's  the  American  way.  A  girl  who 
does  one  thing  all  the  time  does  it  better  and  faster 
than  if  she  combined  them  all  and  made  the  whole 
flower."  Girls,  on  the  other  hand,  complained 
bitterly  of  this  method  saying  that  it  was  monot- 
onous and  gave  them  no  chance  to  get  ahead. 

195 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

They  said  that  the  fault  lay  with  the  forewomen 
who  found  it  inconvenient  to  teach  girls  thor- 
oughly and  so  kept  them  at  a  single  task  when  once 
they  had  learned  it.  While  this  method  seemed 
as  a  rule  to  be  acquiesced  in  by  employers  because 
it  was  the  "American  way,"  nevertheless,  some  of 
them  deplored  the  narrowness  of  such  training 
and  complained  of  the  difficulty  of  getting  "all 
round"  workers.  Some  of  them  distinctly  dis- 
agreed with  the  theory  that  a  high  degree  of 
specialization  was  profitable.  "You  get  in  a  cer- 
tain order,"  said  one,  "and  then  your  girls  can't  do 
the  work.  They  ought  to  be  taught  everything. 
But  we  never  can  do  tedious  work  in  this  country. 
We  have  to  produce  fast." 

Some  girls  had  had  practice  in  the  simple  but 
unskilled  processes  of  making  cheap  flowers  in 
home  work,  before  going  into  the  shop.  For  ex- 
ample, one  who  had  been  employed  in  a  shop  for 
three  years  had  worked  at  home  after  school, 
Sundays,  and  holidays,  ever  since  she  was  a  baby. 
Her  case  was  in  fact  a  practical  illustration  of 
how  little  young  home  workers  learn,  for  it  was 
not  until  she  went  into  a  shop  that  she  had  ever 
worked  on  flowers  of  a  high  grade.  Consequently 
in  the  workroom  she  was  regarded  only  as  a 
learner,  although  her  family  had  been  home  work- 
ers for  the  same  shop  twenty  years,  and  her  home 
had  been  a  factory  ever  since  she  was  born.  She 
had  worked  in  the  real  factory  for  a  year  at  $4.00 
a  week  without  increase  of  pay.  • 

196 


THE   TRAINING   OF    FLOWER   MAKERS 

Notwithstanding  the  haphazard  methods  found 
to  exist  in  the  majority  of  shops,  some  women  of 
marked  native  ability  and  interest  in  their  work 
do  succeed  in  becoming  skilled  flower  makers. 
Probably,  however,  even  these  women  do  not  be- 
come as  skilled  as  they  might  under  better  con- 
ditions. On  the  other  hand,  many  more  continue 
to  be  mere  automatic  repeaters  of  a  part  of  the 
process  of  flower  making,  and  an  even  larger  num- 
ber drift  in  and  out  of  the  trade  without  acquiring 
any  skill  in  it.  Their  brief  and  profitless  experi- 
ence serves  only  to  make  them  irresponsible 
workers  in  danger  of  losing  the  capacity  to  succeed 
in  any  occupation.  Yet  all  these  girls  have  been 
in  contact  with  an  industry  which  might  be  made 
a  true  art,  as  we  have  seen  is  the  case  in  some  shops 
in  Paris,  and  which  might  actually  educate  its 
workers  by  giving  them  a  thorough  fundamental 
knowledge  of  the  growth  and  structure  of  the 
flowers  they  are  copying,  as  well  as  the  principles 
of  line  and  color. 

The  need  for  such  fundamental  knowledge  has 
been  suggested  to  us  more  than  once  by  employers 
and  workers.  But  in  the  rush  of  production  for 
the  millinery  industry  in  New  York  City,  em- 
ployers do  not  yet  see  the  problem  as  a  large  one 
to  be  solved  by  united  action.  They  go  no  fur- 
ther than  to  complain  of  the  difficulty  of  securing 
competent  "hands,"  and  do  not  plan  for  the 
future  by  working  out  any  careful  system  of  train- 
ing in  the  workrooms.     Even  though  an  associa- 

197 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

tion  of  employers  *  has  been  organized  it  has  not 
taken  up  this  question  in  any  fundamental  way. 
That  the  association  regards  the  problem  of 
securing  experienced  workers  as  fundamental, 
however,  has  been  proved  by  the  fact,  already 
mentioned,  that  one  of  their  first  resolutions  pro- 
vided for  a  plan  to  prevent  girls  tempted  by  offers 
of  higher  pay  from  going  from  one  workroom  to 
another  during  the  busy  season.  The  same  reso- 
lution provided  for  piece  work  in  the  workrooms, — 
unfortunately  an  enemy  of  careful,  artistic  work. 

Individual  employers,  however,  do  make  an 
effort  to  supply  their  need  for  experienced  workers 
by  engaging  learners  every  season.  Of  the  1 1 3 
firms  visited  who  reported  on  this  subject,  100,  or 
88  per  cent,  took  learners;  13,  or  12  per  cent,  re- 
fused to  employ  them.  Of  the  100  shops  that 
took  learners,  63  were  willing  to  employ  fourteen- 
year-old  girls,  while  33  would  engage  none  under 
sixteen.  Four  made  no  statement  as  to  the 
minimum  age.  Contrary  to  the  practice  in  Paris, 
firms  here  pay  learners  from  the  first  week  of 
their  employment.  Table  35  shows  the  wages 
paid  to  learners  in  New  York. 

From  88  of  the  100  firms  willing  to  take  them, 
learners  received  less  than  $4.00  a  week.  The 
records  of  the  interviews  with  these  employers 
indicated  that  the  sixteen-year-old  learner  had  no 
higher  pay  than  the  fourteen-year-old.  This  is 
not  true  in  all  industries,  but  in  flower  making, 

*  The  Association  of  Flower  Manufacturers.    See  page  56,  footnote. 

198 


THE   TRAINING   OF   FLOWER   MAKERS 

from  the  point  of  view  of  the  value  to  the  firm, 
deftness  of  touch  is  the  important  thing,  rather 
than  the  superior  physical  strength  of  a  girl  of 
sixteen. 


TABLE  35. — ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   SHOPS   EMPLOYING 

WOMEN   AS  LEARNERS,   BY  WEEKLY 

WAGES  OF   LEARNERS  a 


Weekly  wages 

Shops  paying  learners 

the  weekly  wages 

specified 

$ i. oo  and  less  than  $2.00       .... 
$2.00  and  less  than  $3.00 
$3.00  and  less  than  $4.00       .... 
$4.00  and  less  than  $5.00       .... 
$500 

2 
24 
62 

7 

1 

Total 

96 

a  Of  100  firms  employing  women  as  learners  four  could  not  state 
weekly  wages,  as  the  learners  were  put  directly  at  piece  work. 

It  is  usually  the  girl  who  sits  next  to  a  new  hand 
who  teaches  her  the  process.  Sometimes  this  ar- 
rangement is  systematically  planned  by  the  man- 
agement, but  usually  whether  a  new  girl  learns 
the  different  processes  or  not  depends  upon  the 
willingness  of  her  neighbor  to  teach  her.  Some 
flower  makers  object  to  doing  this  because  they 
believe  that  there  are  enough  girls  already  in  the 
trade.  Others  who  are  piece  workers  complain 
that  they  teach  at  their  own  expense,  since  every 
moment  lost  from  their  work  reduces  their  earn- 
ings. .  The  influence  of  the  attitude  of  older 
workers  toward  the  learners  is  quite  as  important 

199 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

as  the  employer's  plans  for  teaching  new  recruits. 
Furthermore,  the  interest  of  the  learners  them- 
selves in  their  trade,  their  reasons  for  choosing  it, 
and  the  more  indirect  influence  of  their  school 
careers  in  developing  in  them  habits  of  industry 
and  application,  are  noteworthy  factors  in  the 
problem  of  industrial  education  in  this  trade.  In 
the  workers'  statements  of  their  reasons  for  at- 
tempting to  learn  flower  making,  the  sort  of  tra- 
ditional pride  which  the  Parisian  manifests  toward 
her  art  is  conspicuously  lacking.  A  few  comments 
chosen  at  random  from  the  record  cards  are 
illustrative. 

A  Hungarian  woman  who  had  worked  four  years 
in  flower  shops  had  made  a  negative  choice,  so  to 
speak,  by  a  process  of  elimination  of  other  occupa- 
tions. Nor  was  her  enthusiasm  great  for  the  trade 
which  she  had  selected.  The  investigator  who 
interviewed  her  reported  that  she  went  into  flower 
making  because  she  knew  that  in  saleswork  the 
hours  were  always  long  and  $7.00  about  the  maxi- 
mum wage.  She  couldn't  stand  machine  operat- 
ing on  account  of  the  noise,  and  didn't  care  for 
dressmaking.  She  had  been  watching  the  news- 
papers and  had  seen  a  great  many  advertise- 
ments for  flower  makers.  Now  that  she  has  tried 
it  she  thinks  it  is  as  good  as  any  other  trade.  It 
is  better  than  vest  making,  for  instance,  where  the 
girls  have  to  work  with  men.  Still,  she  says,  many 
people  think  that  flower  making  is  not  a  very 
healthy  trade.    The  doctor  had  told  her  that  she 

200 


THE   TRAINING   OF    FLOWER   MAKERS 

must  leave  it  if  she  became  anaemic.  It  is  bad 
for  the  girls  if  they  must  work  in  the  same  room 
where  the  coloring  is  done,  as  often  happens  in 
smaller  shops. 

Celestine,  an  Italian  girl,  had  made  flowers  at 
home  since  the  age  of  ten.  The  visitor  had 
chanced  to  talk  with  her  a  short  time  before  she 
left  school  to  go  to  work  and  Celestine  had  de- 
clared that  she  would  never  go  into  the  flower 
trade.  "That  is  no  trade,"  she  had  said.  In  a 
later  visit  it  was  found  that  she  had  gone  to  work 
in  a  flower  shop,  and  she  was  asked  how  it  hap- 
pened. She  shrugged  her  shoulders  and  replied, 
"I  couldn't  do  anything  else,  so  I  had  to  make 
flowers." 

Even  more  casual  was  the  choice  of  Anna,  a 
flower  maker  of  Russian  parentage.  When  she 
left  school  she  decided  she  would  like  to  get 
into  a  department  store.  So  she  went  up  to 
Sixth  Avenue  and  asked  a  policeman  where  the 
different  stores  were.  He  pointed  them  out  to 
her  and  she  applied  as  cash  girl,  salesgirl,  stock 
girl,  and  so  on,  but  nobody  wanted  her.  As  she 
was  walking  home,  down  Broadway,  she  noticed  a 
sign  out  for  artificial  flower  makers.  She  had 
heard  that  girls  often  worked  at  this  trade.  So 
she  went  in  and  applied  for  a  "situation"  and  was 
told  to  come  the  next  day. 

Not  all  flower  makers  have  been  employed  in 
that  occupation  at  the  beginning  of  their  trade 
careers.     Many  have  drifted  into  it  after  attempt- 

201 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

ing  other  work.  Of  the  group  whom  we  inter- 
viewed, about  60  per  cent  had  found  their  first 
positions  in  flower  factories,  and  about  10  per 
cent  in  feather  making,  while  the  remainder  had 
been  previously  employed  at  candy  making, 
sewing,  work  in  stores,  or  the  following  miscella- 
neous occupations:  Trimming  turnovers,  making 
ruchings,  packing  embroidery,  packing  passe- 
menterie, learning  to  make  passementerie,  as- 
sorting buttons,  painting  buttons,  crocheting 
buttons,  labeling  ribbons,  bolting  ribbons,  learn- 
ing machine  operating  on  underwear  and  children's 
dresses,  working  at  millinery,  making  neckties, 
sewing  labels  on  men's  clothing,  "putting  rings  on 
overalls,"  working  on  handkerchiefs,  examining 
waists,  painting  pipes,  labeling  groceries,  doing 
housework,  and  working  in  a  bakery. 

These  were  the  first  positions  found  after  leav- 
ing school.  How  young  the  workers  were  is 
shown  in  Table  36,  which  gives  their  ages  when 
they  left  the  class  room  and  went  into  the  factory 
to  earn  a  living. 

Thus  77,  or  exactly  half,  left  at  the  age  of  four- 
teen years,  and  145,  or  more  than  nine  out  of 
every  10,  left  before  reaching  the  sixteenth  birth- 
day. 

No  systematic  effort  was  made  in  the  investiga- 
tion to  find  out  why  the  girls  left  school  so  early, 
but  the  subject  was  frequently  discussed,  and  the 
comments  made  by  some  of  them  in  this  con- 
nection were  illuminating.     One  girl  had  worked 

202 


THE   TRAINING   OF    FLOWER   MAKERS 

in  a  flower  shop  in  the  summer  vacation  intending 
to  return  to  school  in  the  fall.  She  carried  out 
this  intention  for  one  week,  but  she  found  that 
her  friends  had  left  and  when  she  met  them  in  the 
evenings  they  teased  her  with  questions  as  to 
why  she  wanted  to  keep  on  going  to  school.  So 
she  went  back  to  the  flower  shop.  Another  ex- 
pressed great  regret  to  the  visitor  that  she,  too, 
left  because  her  friends  urged  her  to  stop,  although 
it  was  not  necessary  for  her  to  go  to  work  until 
a  year  later.  Another  had  been  eager  to  continue 
but  she  went  to  work  to  enable  her  brothers  to  get 
a  professional  education,  an  impossibility  without 
even  the  small  earnings  which  she  could  add  to 

TABLE   36. — AGE   AT   LEAVING    SCHOOL,    OF    WOMEN 
EMPLOYED    IN    ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER  MAKING* 


Age  at  leaving  school 


WOMEN  EMPLOYED  IN 

FLOWER  MAKING  WHO 

LEFT  SCHOOL  AT  THE 

AGES  SPECIFIED 


Never  attended  school 
Under  12  years 

12  years     . 

13  years     . 

14  years     . 

1 5  years     . 

16  years     . 

17  years     . 

18  years     . 


Total 


a  Of  174  women,  20,  chiefly  women  who  had  attended  foreign  schools 
only,  did  not  supply  information. 

203 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

her  father's  wages.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that 
flower  makers  belong  to  families  in  which  the 
struggle  to  gain  a  living  is  very  real,  the  comments 
of  the  workers  and  their  families  indicated  that 
it  had  not  always  been  extreme  economic  pressure 
which  had  driven  them  from  school  to  work  at 
the  age  of  fourteen.  The  immediate  reason  often 
repeated  was  "because  my  friends  left"  or  "I 
was  tired  of  school,  and  my  friends  all  asked  me 
why  I  stayed." 

Only  in  a  minority  of  cases  had  they  stayed  in 
school  long  enough  to  graduate  from  the  ele- 
mentary grades.  Of  171  who  gave  information 
on  this  point,  one  had  never  attended  school,  1 33 
reported  that  the  last  day  school  attended  was  in 
New  York  City  (13  in  parochial  or  privately  sup- 
ported schools  and  120  in  public  schools),  while 
two  had  been  to  school  in  some  other  city  of  the 
United  States  and  35  reported  that  the  last  school 
attended  had  been  in  foreign  lands.  Of  the  120 
from  New  York  public  schools,  112  reported  the 
grade  reached,  and  of  these  nine  left  before  reach- 
ing the  fifth  grade,  12  left  while  in  the  fifth  grade, 
24  the  sixth,  38  the  seventh,  14  the  eighth,  1 1 
graduated,  and  four  went  to  high  school  but  did 
not  graduate.  Thus  the  proportion  who  left  be- 
fore they  graduated  from  the  elementary  grades 
was  87  per  cent. 

Several  facts  stand  out  prominently  in  these 
data  regarding  the  schooling  of  flower  makers, — 
the  large  proportion  who  leave  school  at  the  age 

204 


THE   TRAINING   OF    FLOWER   MAKERS 

of  fourteen,  the  failure  to  graduate  even  from 
elementary  school,  and  the  trivial  reasons  for 
leaving.  The  fact  that  so  many  of  the  flower 
makers  receive  their  final  school  training  in  the 
public  schools  throws  on  these  schools  some  of  the 
responsibility  for  conditions  in  this  trade  and 
gives  them  an  opportunity  for  influence.  How 
they  are  to  meet  this  responsibility  is  a  large 
question.  Conditions  in  the  flower  trade  show 
the  need  for  skilled  workers  able  to  do  a  high 
grade  of  work.  Facts  about  the  age  at  which 
flower  makers  leave  school  suggest  that  their 
capacity  for  skill  would  be  greater  if  their  child- 
hood could  be  prolonged  by  staying  in  school  until 
they  were  older.  Whether  the  day  schools  or  the 
evening  schools  might  exert  a  more  direct  influ- 
ence by  organizing  classes  for  training  flower 
makers  was  one  of  the  most  important  questions 
discussed  in  the  course  of  this  investigation. 

Such  facts  as  those  already  described  in  con- 
nection with  the  training  of  flower  makers  are 
more  or  less  typical  of  conditions  in  other  trades 
today.  The  situation  has  aroused  many  persons 
to  advocate  the  establishment  of  trade  classes  in 
public  schools  to  perform  the  task  now  so  sadly 
neglected  in  the  workrooms,  and  to  give  the 
training  an  educational  value,  which  it  is  com- 
monly supposed  it  never  could  have  under  shop 
conditions  alone.  In  all  our  interviews  with  em- 
ployers and  workers  we  made  careful  inquiry  about 
their  opinions  concerning  the  desirability  of  estab- 

205 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER  MAKERS 

lishing  such  classes  either  in  day  or  evening  schools. 
Their  comments  are  a  summary  of  the  many  prac- 
tical difficulties  that  now  confront  the  advocates 
of  industrial  education.  Roughly  these  comments 
divided  themselves  into  two  groups, — those  con- 
cerned specifically  with  the  desirability  of  training 
girls  for  the  artificial  flower  trade,  and  those 
concerned  with  the  desirability  of  the  trade 
school  method  in  general.  The  employers'  at- 
titude may  be  defined  by  the  following  classi- 
fications : 

In  favor  of  trade  classes 52 

Opposed  to  trade  classes 22 

Indifferent 27 

Doubtful  of  its  success 10 

Opinion  not  given 3 

Total 1 14 

Less  than  half  favored  trade  classes,  while  22 
were  opposed,  and  27  were  indifferent.  Ten  were 
doubtful  of  the  success  of  such  a  plan.  Their 
opinions  threw  light  not  merely  upon  the  value  of 
trade  classes  and  their  practicability,  but  also 
upon  many  conditions  in  the  industry  which  affect 
the  training  of  learners.  Wages,  methods  of 
organizing  the  work,  seasons,  nationality  and 
age  of  the  worker,  and  the  home-work  system, — 
all  these  are  factors  in  the  problem  of  develop- 
ing efficient  workers.  Favorable  comments  are 
quoted  first. 

The  owner  of  one  of  the  best  flower  shops  in 
206 


THE   TRAINING   OF    FLOWER   MAKERS 

New  York  was  enthusiastic  over  the  possibility  of 
a  class  for  training  workers.  He  believed  that 
the  flower  trade  had  a  future  in  America  and  saw 
no  reason  why  we  should  not  be  able  to  produce 
flowers  as  fine  as  the  imported  models.  Moreover, 
he  thought  that  to  take  a  girl  from  one  of  the 
machine  trades,  which  are  known  to  be  over- 
crowded, and  put  her  into  the  flower  trade  would 
also  benefit  the  girls  in  the  machine  trades  by 
lessening  the  number  in  their  ranks.  Another 
owner  of  a  shop  who  was  much  interested  in  the 
idea  of  a  class,  said  that  it  would  be  very 
desirable  for  the  employer.  He  pointed  out 
how  wasteful  is  the  present  system  of  learning, 
as  only  about  two  girls  out  of  every  12  "  learn- 
ers' '  become  flower  makers.  Their  ideals  of  good 
workmanship  too  would  be  stimulated.  "Now- 
a-days  girls  always  ask  first,  'How  much  do 
you  pay?'  not  'How  much  will  I  progress?'" 
He  thought,  however,  that  two  serious  difficulties 
before  such  a  class  would  be  to  dispose  of  the 
product,  and  to  pay  the  cost  of  the  materials 
which  he  estimated  as  $4.00  or  $5 .00  for  every  $  1 .00 
spent  on  labor. 

In  a  shop  where  75  girls  were  employed,  both 
the  forewoman  and  a  member  of  the  firm  greeted 
the  idea  of  a  class  with  enthusiasm.  Neverthe- 
less, their  statement  of  the  case  might  be  regarded 
by  true  educators  as  an  argument  against  such  a 
plan.  "  If  the  schools  could  get  the  girls  started," 
they  said,  "as  you  get  a  machine  well  oiled-up  and 

207 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER  MAKERS 

set  going,  it  would  be  a  fine  thing  for  us."  To 
feed  industry  with  ready-made  workers  is  not, 
however,  the  aim  of  those  interested  in  industrial 
education.  This  employer  gave  further  evidence 
that  his  idea  was  not  to  develop  really  artistic 
work  but  merely  to  supply  market  demands  as 
they  now  exist,  without  making  any  effort  to 
change  them.  In  answer  to  the  suggestion  that 
pupils  in  a  flower  makers'  class  ought  to  use  real 
flowers  as  models,  he  replied,  "It  would  not  be 
worth  while.  If  you  want  the  really  artistic  flow- 
ers you  must  send  to  France.  There  a  girl  works 
six  or  eight  hours  on  one  flower,  but  here  we  must 
get  out  the  orders  quickly.  We  cannot  change 
the  market.  The  people  who  buy  from  us  want 
cheap  flowers,  so  we  make  them." 

"  It's  a  poor  trade,"  said  another.  "We  have  to 
follow  the  methods  of  our  competitors,  and  the 
result  is  that  we  can  hardly  pay  these  girls  a  living 
wage.  It  takes  a  girl  two  years  to  learn  it  and 
during  that  time  she  works  for  about  $4.00  a  week. 
Time  was  when  we  made  as  good  a  flower  as 
Germany.  Now  we  can't  compete  even  with 
Germany.  All  the  cheap  and  mediocre  flowers 
come  from  there.  The  artistic  work  comes  from 
Paris;  labor  is  cheap  there.  But  it  isn't  only  com- 
petition from  the  other  side,  and  it  isn't  bad  times 
here, — it's  the  fashion.  If  women  wanted  flowers 
they'd  have  them,  hard  times  or  no  hard  times, 
but  some  seasons  they  don't  want  them." 

Aside  from  doubt  of  the  practicability  of  a  trade 
208 


»•  •  •  •    ' 


Making  Willow  Plumes 


•  1       1 

1 

k&*      ml 

SS3H  Hfe*. .     ..31                   ^^k\V\u 

■k 

Rose  Making  and  Branching 


.««    •-••* 


THE   TRAINING   OF   FLOWER   MAKERS 

class,  employers  who  expressed  unfavorable  views 
often  based  their  opinion  on  bad  conditions  in  the 
trade.  "It  is  not  a  staple  product/'  said  one, 
"and  the  wages  are  low.  It  is  a  trade  where 
ignorant  girls  can  be  used.  It  is  not  the  place  for 
those  who  are  ambitious.  I  would  rather  see  a 
girl  drift  into  any  occupation  but  flower  making. 
The  seasons  do  not  last  more  than  four  months 
now-a-days."  Others  pointed  out  the  same  ob- 
jections; namely,  that  the  styles  change  often, 
that  the  sale  of  flowers  fluctuates  too  violent- 
ly to  predict  the  prosperity  of  the  industry  from 
season  to  season;  that  the  demand  in  the  trade  is 
for  cheap  labor  and,  therefore,  young  girls  are 
needed ;  and  that  the  wages  ahead  for  experienced 
workers  are  too  low  to  make  it  worth  while  to 
train  them  in  a  school. 

Of  the  practicability  of  such  a  class  many 
doubts  were  expressed.  These  were  centered 
about  the  difficulties  involved  in  securing  equip- 
ment; having  starchers,  dyers,  and  cutters  to  pre- 
pare the  material  for  the  pupils'  work;  disposing 
of  the  product  afterward;  and  obtaining  practical 
and  competent  teachers.  To  supply  the  right 
materials  to  work  with  in  sufficient  variety  for 
thorough  practice  would  be  a  heavy  expense. 
Furthermore,  if  the  teaching  were  not  funda- 
mental and  practical  it  would  not  be  successful. 
As  an  example,  one  employer  referred  to  a  flower 
maker  in  his  workroom  who  had  been  trained  in 
an  evening  class.     "She  is  a  good  worker  now," 

209 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

he  said,  "but  they  did  not  teach  her  in  a  practical 
way.  They  taught  her  to  make  clover  blossoms, 
but  clover  blossoms  are  imported  so  cheaply  that 
it  does  not  pay  to  make  them  here.  They  taught 
her  how  to  crimp  poppy  petals,  but  this  crimping 
can  be  done  by  machinery  in  the  shop."  He 
added,  however,  that  a  school  could  teach  certain 
fundamental  principles  of  flower  making.  To 
curl  rose  petals  is  not  only  good  practice  in  rose 
making  but  a  means  of  acquiring  the  deftness 
needed  in  many  other  processes  of  the  trade.  To 
know  something  of  botany,  and  to  learn  the  con- 
struction and  growth  of  a  flower,  is  to  become  the 
sort  of  intelligent  worker  greatly  needed  now  in  the 
industry.  This  demand  for  general  intelligence  as 
an  essential  equipment  was  voiced  by  the  efficient 
manager  of  the  flower  department  of  a  very  large 
wholesale  millinery  establishment.  He  opposed  a 
trade  class  for  training  flower  makers  for  the  same 
reason  that  he  opposed  vocational  courses  in  high 
schools, — because  he  was  skeptical  of  the  effi- 
ciency of  either  school  or  college  courses  which 
aim  to  serve  as  substitutes  for  practical  industrial 
or  business  experience.  "It  is  better,"  he  said, 
"to  give  the  good,  old-fashioned  general  edu- 
cation." 

The  fundamental  objection  to  the  organization 
of  flower  makers'  classes  in  New  York  public 
schools  today  is  not,  however,  the  impracticability 
of  the  plan,  but  the  possible  effect  of  such  classes 
on  conditions  in  the  trade,  and  the  undesirability  of 

210 


THE   TRAINING   OF    FLOWER   MAKERS 

training  girls  for  an  industry  which  does  not  yet 
insure  the  wellbeing  of  all  its  employes.  Lack  of 
skill  in  the  worker  is  not  the  only  obstacle  to  the 
prosperity  and  happiness  of  wage-earners,  and  a 
preliminary  training  in  deftness  and  in  knowledge 
of  trade  processes  will  not  remove  all,  or  even  a 
goodly  proportion,  of  the  industrial  evils  which 
now  oppress  the  workers.  If  the  schools,  for  ex- 
ample, give  a  number  of  girls  a  thorough  practice 
in  the  initial  mysteries  of  artificial  flower  making, 
will  wages  increase,  seasons  lengthen,  and  home 
work  disappear?  Or  will  the  employers,  finding 
a  supply  of  trained  workers  knocking  at  their 
doors  each  year,  feel  less  and  less  the  necessity 
for  giving  steady  work  even  to  a  few  of  the  best 
hands?  Will  the  workers  be  better  able  to  bar- 
gain for  just  wages,  or  will  they  be  told  that  if 
they  ask  too  much  they  can  leave  and  other  girls 
from  the  trade  school  will  take  their  places?  Will 
the  causes  of  home  work  be  removed  or  its  evils 
lessened  by  a  trade  class? 

Those  employers  who  opposed  the  idea  of  train- 
ing flower  makers  in  public  schools  on  the  ground 
that  conditions  in  the  trade  did  not  justify  it,  were 
voicing  one  of  the  most  serious  obstacles  to  the 
development  of  industrial  education.  For  low^ 
wages,  short  seasons,  cheap  work,  haphazard 
methods  of  training,  long  hours,  and  an  extensive 
home-work  system  all  directly  prevent  the  develop- 
ment of  efficient  workers.  The  responsibility  of 
the  school  for  solving  educational  problems  grow- 

211 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

ing  out  of  tremendous  changes  in  social  and  eco- 
nomic conditions  cannot  be  denied,  but  a  direct 
effort  on  their  part  to  train  workers  for  a  trade 
like  flower  making  would  be  of  doubtful  wisdom. 
True  efficiency  cannot  be  secured  by  the  schools 
alone  unless  the  conditions  in  the  industry  be  so 
changed  that  they  shall  develop  rather  than  re- 
press the  capacity  of  the  workers._y 


212 


CHAPTER  IX 
SUMMARY 

TO  readers  of  magazines  and  newspapers,  who 
have  become  familiar  with  accounts  of 
child  laborers  in  tenements,  the  mere  men- 
tion of  the  artificial  flower  trade  recalls  a  picture  of 
a  three-year-old  toiler  picking  apart  the  petals  to 
be  pasted  together  in  the  shape  of  a  violet  or  a 
rose.  Thus,  paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  artificial 
flowers  have  become  the  very  symbol  of  a  method 
of  nullifying  the  law,  outwitting  the  reformers,  and 
exploiting  childhood  in  the  midst  of  a  city  in 
which  public  opinion  has  expressed  itself  in  no  un- 
certain terms  against  the  employment  of  children 
in  any  wage-earning  occupation.  But  the  blight 
of  the  home-work  system  falls  not  only  upon  the 
workers.  The  exploitation  of  the  unskilled, 
whether  they  be  children  or  their  mothers  and 
grandmothers,  means  bad  workmanship,  and  bad 
workmanship  will  inevitably  undermine  the  pros- 
perity of  the  industry.  It  would  be  a  pity  to  de- 
stroy an  occupation  capable  at  its  best  of  attracting 
so  artistic  and  cultivated  a  worker  as  Mme.  A, 
the  Frenchwoman  whose  exquisite  copy  of  a  moss 
rose  fresh  from  the  garden  has  been  described  as 
typical  of  the  most  eificient  Parisian  workmanship. 

213 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER  MAKERS 

The  chief  problem  of  the  flower  trade,  then,  is 
how  to  raise  the  standards  of  workmanship.  The 
trade,  however,  is  not  a  machine  industry  in 
which  the  development  of  new  mechanical  devices 
is  the  chief  factor  in  production.  The  work  is 
hand  work,  and  we  have  learned  from  France  that 
the  beauty  of  a  flower  is  created  by  a  subtle 
deftness  of  touch,  gained  only  by  long  practice. 
Thus  the  future  of  the  trade  depends  not  upon 
mechanical  equipment  but  upon  the  skill  of  the 
workers.  For  the  sake  of  the  future  of  their  trade 
artificial  flower  manufacturers  of  New  York 
greatly  need  an  efficiency  engineer,  with  an  artist's 
training,  to  set  in  order  their  house  of  industry. 

In  order  to  raise  the  standard  of  workmanship, 
labor  conditions  must  be  improved.  Certain  ex- 
ternal facts  about  the  industry  must  be  passed  in 
review  to  give  a  picture  of  labor  conditions.  Al- 
though flower  making  is  a  handicraft,  the  craftsman 
who  sells  her  product  direct  to  retail  customers  is  as 
rare  a  figure  as  in  any  industry  which  has  been  re- 
volutionized by  the  introduction  of  machinery. 
Flower  manufacturers  sell  not  at  retail,  but  at 
wholesale  to  milliners,  and  it  is  this  wholesale  pro- 
duction which  has  led  to  the  use  of  the  factory 
system  with  sub-division  of  labor,  piece  work, 
contractors,  and  the  sweating  system. 

In  the  United  States  the  flower  and  feather 
trade  has  become  essentially  a  city  industry,  three- 
fourths  of  it  concentrated  in  New  York  City,  and 
by  far  the  greater  number  of  New  York  workers 

214 


SUMMARY 

and  firms  congested  in  a  small  district  on  the 
lower  west  side  near  the  salesrooms  and  factories 
of  wholesale  milliners.  Moreover,  since  flower 
making  is  a  subsidiary  industry,  dependent  for  its 
existence  upon  the  amount  and  type  of  personal 
decoration  that  fashion  may  decree  or  money 
permit,  it  is  one  of  the  first  to  feel  a  change  of  mode, 
financial  depression  or  abnormal  seasonal  con- 
ditions. When  the  country  is  prosperous,  the 
weather  good,  and  large  or  medium-sized  flowers 
are  in  vogue,  artificial  flower  makers  will  have  a 
good  season.  If  very  small  flowers  are  preferred, 
forget-me-nots  or  lilacs,  imports  from  Germany 
will  increase  and  fewer  workers  will  be  employed 
in  New  York  flower  factories.  If  the  weather  is 
cold  at  the  time  of  the  spring  "openings, "  or  warm 
when  the  autumn  models  are  first  displayed,  the 
whole  trade  will  be  depressed.  When  hard  times 
come,  women  will  forego  the  luxury  of  having 
extra  hats.  Finally,  to  cap  the  climax  of  un- 
certainty, just  as  the  manufacturers  are  reveling  in 
signs  of  the  popularity  of  flowers,  some  manipula- 
tor of  fashions  will  succeed  in  catching  the  popular 
fancy  with  a  new  device  of  feathers  or  ribbons  and 
for  the  remainder  of  the  season  these  will  be  the 
only  conceivable  trimming  for  the  hats  of  the 
fashionable. 

To  the  large  shop  equipped  to  manufacture 
feathers  and  millinery  supplies  as  well  as  flowers, 
these  uncertainties  may  cause  only  considerable 
inconvenience;  but  to  the  small  owners,  who  are  in 

215 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

the  majority  in  this  industry,  they  frequently  mean 
failure.  The  worker,  whether  she  be  employed  in 
a  large  workroom  or  a  small  one,  may  find  herself 
suddenly  out  of  work  at  a  time  which  she  expected 
to  be  the  height  of  the  season.  Those  who  suffer 
least  are  the  women  who  have  learned  also  to  make 
feathers  and  who  are  employed  in  establishments 
with  several  departments. 

The  frequent  failures  of  small  firms  and  the  sud- 
den reductions  in  the  force  at  the  end  of  each  sea- 
son in  both  large  and  small  establishments,  result 
in  revolutionary  changes  in  the  personnel  of  the 
workers.  Such  variations  mean  that  the  workers 
will  have  no  standards  of  production  in  common, 
since  they  are  for  the  most  part  newcomers  in  the 
workrooms,  without  a  traditional  love  of  flower 
making  or  constant  practice  in  the  art.  More- 
over, in  New  York  City,  the  trades  in  which  con- 
ditions are  most  variable  reflect  most  quickly 
changes  in  immigration.  Occupations  in  which 
three-fourths  of  the  positions  are  filled  anew  each 
season  will  attract  those  whose  foothold  in  in- 
dustry is  least  sure, — foreign-born  adults  and  the 
children  of  foreigners,  young  workers  fresh  from 
school  whose  prospective  wages  seem  so  important 
to  their  families  that  they  must  take  the  first 
possible  job,  and  married  women  bidding  des- 
perately for  a  chance  to  supplement  a  meager 
family  income  through  work  at  home.  Em- 
ployers constantly  complain  that  their  workers 
"care  more  about  an  extra  dollar  than  about  a 

216 


SUMMARY 

chance  to  learn  the  trade. "  They  say  that  a  girl 
who  has  learned  but  one  process  will  give  up  a 
chance  to  learn  more  in  order  to  make  higher 
wages  in  some  other  factory  where  her  specializa- 
tion will  be  more  valuable,  even  though  her  future 
as  a  skilled  flower  maker  may  be  jeopardized.  Em- 
ployers who  complain  of  this  condition  might  find 
it  explained  by  the  fact  that  an  unstable  occupa- 
tion must  always  utilize  the  labor  of  workers 
economically  the  least  stable.  These  will  not  be 
likely  to  develop  the  highest  type  of  efficiency. 
The  effect  of  the  seasons  on  the  personnel  of  the 
workroom  force  was  voiced  by  the  employer  who 
said,  "There  are  plenty  of  girls  in  the  trade  if  the 
work  could  be  spread  over  the  whole  year,  but  the 
trouble  is  that  too  many  are  wanted  at  one  time 
for  only  a  short  period. " 

Not  only  do  these  conditions  prevent  the  organ- 
ization of  a  permanent  force  in  the  trade,  but  the 
rewards  of  experience  are  too  small  to  balance  the 
uncertainties  of  the  occupation.  Figures  copied 
from  payrolls  of  flower  factories  in  the  United 
States  by  the  census  enumerators  in  a  busy  week 
of  the  year  revealed  the  fact  that  at  the  height 
of  the  season  only  about  one  woman  in  sixteen 
(6.7  per  cent)  received  as  much  as  $12  or  over, 
while  twice  as  many  (13.3  per  cent)  earned  less 
than  $3.  The  average  wage  of  all  workers,  exclud- 
ing forewomen,  interviewed  by  us  was  $6. 37  a  week. 
The  average  for  those  who  were  eighteen  years  of 
age  or  over,  including  forewomen,  was  only  $8.28. 

217 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

We  have  seen,  too,  that  chance  seems  to  con- 
trol the  wage  scale.  Processes  vary  and  piece- 
work earnings  must  be  readjusted  with  each 
change  in  the  product.  The  workers,  unstable  as 
they  are  likely  to  be  and  heterogeneous  in  nation- 
ality, have  never  succeeded  in  organizing  a  trade 
union  to  compel  forewomen  or  employers  to  con- 
sider their  interests  in  the  wage  bargain.  Further- 
more, for  every  worker  in  the  shop  at  least  one 
woman  or  child  is  working  at  home,  members  of  a 
scattered  industrial  group  without  the  least  sense 
of  common  interests  or  power  to  ask  for  higher 
pay.  All  these  uncertain  elements  influence  wages 
and  prevent  the  establishment  of  a  standard. 
Until  wage  standards  of  some  kind  are  recognized, 
personal  efficiency  will  not  be  properly  rewarded. 
Until  conditions  in  the  trade  are  so  changed  that 
adequate  payment  will  be  made  for  work  well  done, 
skill  will  be  increasingly  rare. 

No  single  element  is  producing  chaos  in  the 
wage  scale  so  disastrously  as  the  home-work 
system.  It  is  the  greatest  enemy  of  artistic 
work.  As  an  industrial  method  it  stands  con- 
demned not  only  because  it  thrives  through 
exploitation  of  the  very  poor,  but  because  it  repre- 
sents the  most  extreme  form  of  unscientific  man- 
agement, which  if  unchecked  may  eventually  ruin 
and  even  "kill"  the  industry.  Take  an  illustra- 
tion from  an  allied  trade.  In  1910  feather  manu- 
facturers were  making  and  selling  willow  plumes 
at  a  high  price.     Suddenly  some  small  employers 

218 


SUMMARY 

began  offering  them  at  a  third  the  usual  price, 
being  able  to  do  so  because  they  had  transformed 
willow-plume  making  into  a  tenement  industry 
with  no  standard  of  wages,  exploiting  little  chil- 
dren in  the  families  of  the  poorest  Italians.  The 
manufacturers  who  had  been  selling  the  products 
of  their  own  workrooms  gave  up  making  willow 
plumes,  and  bought  them  from  the  small  em- 
ployers who  had  become  the  parasites  of  the 
tenements.  "  I  went  every  day  in  my  automobile 
to  the  home-work  district  to  buy/'  said  one  em- 
ployer, his  experience  still  vivid  in  his  mind.  "  I 
saw  sights  worse  than  any  described  to  the  Factory 
Investigating  Commission/'*  The  result  was  to 
make  willow  plumes  so  numerous,  so  common,  so 
cheap,  and  the  wearing  of  them  so  abhorrent  to 
right-minded  people,  that  less  than  three  years 
later  their  manufacture  in  New  York  tenements 
was  practically  an  extinct  occupation.  In  addition 
to  the  disastrous  effect  upon  famjly  life  and  health, 
home  work  depresses  the  wage  scale,  shortens  the 
seasons  by  swelling  the  volume  of  production,  and 
lowers  the  standards  of  American  workmanship  by 
flooding  the  market  with  cheap  and  badly  made 
products. 

Thorough  study  of  conditions  of  the  trade  in 
Paris,  where  flower  makers  unquestionably,  as 
yet,  excel  us  in  artistic  spirit  and  craftsmanlike 

*  Conditions  of  tenement  work  were  revealed  in  testimony  before 
the  Factory  Investigating  Commission  of  New  York  State,  in  public 
hearings  held  in  New  York  City  in  December,  1912. 

219 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

work,  would  no  doubt  throw  much  light  on  the  in- 
dustry in  this  country.  Even  though  the  facts 
which  we  have  secured  about  the  trade  in  France 
are  illustrative  rather  than  conclusive,  they  are  il- 
luminating. The  home  worker  there  has  usually 
received  a  thorough  training  in  the  factory,  and 
the  work  she  does  is  highly  skilled.  Her  children 
do  not  help  her;  they  are  not  skilled  enough.  In 
the  factories  employers  have  given  much  attention 
to  training  learners,  and  in  those  of  the  better 
grades  the  seasons  are  long  enough  to  prevent  con- 
stant loss  of  workers.  In  Paris  as  in  New  York 
large  numbers  of  girls  are  paid  less  than  a  living 
wage  in  this  as  in  other  trades.  Nevertheless,  the 
trade  in  Paris  ranks  among  the  better  paid  occu- 
pations open  to  women,  while  in  New  York  the  pro- 
portion of  low  paid  workers  is  large  in  flower  making 
as  compared  with  all  industries  considered  together. 
Even  in  Paris,  however,  the  industry  is  changing, 
the  factory  system  is  being  extended,  inartistic 
work  is  not  uncommon,  the  contractor  is  an  im- 
portant figure,  the  seasons  are  less  steady  and  the 
necessity  for  learning  both  flower  making  and 
feather  making  seems  to  be  increasingly  felt.  Yet 
the  distinctive  features  of  the  Paris  flower  trade 
are  its  artistic  possibilities,  the  workers'  choice  of 
it  as  a  life  craft,  their  pride  in  creating  a  beautiful 
object,  and,  most  of  all,  their  traditional  love  of 
good  workmanship.  The  French  flowers  sold  by 
New  York  milliners  tell  the  story  of  the  skill  of  their 
makers.     Some  beautiful  flowers  are  made  in  New 

220 


SUMMARY 

York,  and  skilled  workers  are  found  in  the  trade; 
but  we  cannot  rival  France  unless  the  whole  at- 
mosphere of  the  industry  is  changed,  unless  a  new 
spirit  of  joy  in  workmanship  enters  in;  and, 
more  fundamental  still,  unless  the  standards  of 
labor  conditions  are  so  changed  as  to  make  pos- 
sible permanence  in  the  workroom  force,  suitable 
rewards  for  expert  work,  and  the  thorough  training 
of  learners.* 

The  problem,  however,  is  by  no  means  hopeless. 
We  cannot  take  the  trade  apart  like  a  house  of 
cards  and  rebuild  it  in  an  hour.  An  industry  is  an 
organism  whose  development  is  vital  and  not 
mechanical.  But  much  depends  on  nurture  and 
environment,  and  the  American  people  are  just 
beginning  to  recognize  the  possibility  of  legisla- 
tive action  which  shall  strengthen  the  growth  of  a 
trade  under  conditions  favorable  to  the  best  in- 
terests of  all  who  are  engaged  in  it.  The  estab- 
lishment of  minimum  standards  below  which  no 
single  manufacturer  may  fall  to  the  detriment  of 
his  fellow  manufacturers,  serves  to  re-enforce  the 

*  These  requirements  illustrate  the  problem  which  advocates 
of  new  methods  of  industrial  education  must  face.  A  higher  grade 
of  skill  is  needed,  and  this  can  be  developed  in  flower  making  more 
easily  than  in  machine  industries,  because  quality  has  not  given 
place  to  quantity  as  the  inevitable  test  of  skill,  and  efficiency  still  de- 
pends more  upon  intelligence  than  upon  mechanical  speed.  France 
excels  us  in  a  way  to  stir  our  pride  to  achievement.  Is  the  time,  then, 
ripe  for  co-operation  between  the  public  schools  and  the  trade?  A 
public  school  official  in  New  York  who  read  this  report  decided  that 
it  was  not.  His  reasons  were  that  the  pay  was  too  inadequate, 
standards  of  workmanship  were  too  low,  and  home  workers  too 
numerous.  The  schools  can  accomplish  little  in  co-cperation  with 
any  trade  until  within  the  trade  itself  there  is  a  demand  for  efficiency 
and  a  disposition  to  pay  for  it. 

221 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 

efforts  of  the  best  worker?  and  employers  within 
the  industry.  The  growth  of  legislation,  however, 
should  be  as  vital  and  organic  as  the  growth  of  a 
trade.  It  must  be  based  on  knowledge  of  con- 
ditions, it  must  be  uncontrolled  by  special  in- 
terests, and  it  must  be  vigorously  and  fearlessly 
enforced. 

Prohibition  of  the  employment  in  factories  of 
children  under  sixteen  would  relieve  the  artificial 
flower  trade  of  its  undue  proportion  of  young 
workers.  The  strict  enforcement  of  the  law  regu- 
lating the  hours  of  work  of  women  would  protect 
them  against  excessive  fatigue  during  the  busy 
season.  But  neither  child  labor  laws  nor  legis- 
lation limiting  the  hours  of  work  of  women  which 
apply  only  in  factories  will  suffice  to  secure  proper 
conditions  in  the  flower  trade,  so  long  as  the  home- 
work system  makes  possible  the  employment  of 
babies  at  home,  and  prolongs  the  hours  of  labor  for 
factory  hands  when  the  day's  work  in  the  factory 
is  over.  In  this  trade  the  first  line  of  attack  to 
improve  conditions  in  the  factories  must  un- 
doubtedly be  against  the  home-work  system. 

Opinions,  however,  differ  as  to  the  most  effective 
method  of  attack.  The  newest  suggestion  is  the 
establishment  by  law  of  a  minimum  wage  board 
for  the  trade,  containing  representatives  of  em- 
ployers, workers,  and  the  general  public.  The 
purpose  of  such  a  board  would  be  to  introduce  the 
machinery  of  collective  bargaining  with  reference 
to  the  minimum  wage  rates  to  prevail  in  the  in- 

222 


SUMMARY 

dustry.  If  established  by  law,  the  recommenda- 
tions of  the  board  would  become  legally  binding  on 
all  employers  in  the  trade.  Advocates  of  this  plan 
believe  that  to  require  the  payment  of  a  fair  mini- 
mum rate  would  result  in  limiting  home  work,  since 
home  work  thrives  through  under-payment. 

Others  who  have  studied  the  home-work  system 
believe  that  it  should  be  attacked  more  directly  by 
a  law  absolutely  prohibiting  any  manufacture  in 
tenement  homes.  They  argue  that  the  evils  of 
this  system — unlimited  hours,  the  employment  of 
children,  and  the  forcing  down  of  wages — are  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  work  is  done  in  homes  where 
the  workers  are  isolated  and  where  the  conditions 
of  their  employment  cannot  be  supervised.  Reg- 
ulation of  such  conditions  is  impossible.  The  ex- 
perience of  New  York  illustrates  the  difficulty  of 
attempting  it.  A  few  employers,  especially  in  the 
larger  establishments,  have  expressed  themselves 
as  in  favor  of  absolute  prohibition  of  flower  man- 
ufacture in  tenement  homes  because  it  would  re- 
lieve them  of  the  competition  of  the  small  firms 
which  thrive  through  the  home-work  system. 
But  such  a  prohibition  would  do  more  than  re- 
lieve these  employers  of  competition.  It  would 
make  possible  a  better  product,  and  this  would  in- 
crease the  demand  for  good  workmanship  and  thus 
improve  labor  conditions. 

A  trade  like  artificial  flower  making,  the  product 
of  which  is  a  luxury  and  not  a  necessity,  is  one  in 
which  such  legislative  experiments  may  well  be 

223 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

tried,  especially  when  the.  facts  show  so  convinc- 
ingly that  the  welfare  of  workers  and  the  future 
prosperity  of  the  industry  are  bound  together. 
With  so  much  of  the  trade  centered  in  New  York, 
it  is  within  the  power  of  the  state  legislature 
to  take  action  which  should  determine  the  future 
destiny  of  the  whole  industry  in  this  country. 


224 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX  A 

RECORD  CARDS   USED   IN  THE 
INVESTIGATION 

i.    Worker's  Record. 

i a.  Worker's  Record  (Reverse). 

2.  Worker's  Report  of  Artificial  Flower  Factory. 
2a.  Notes  on  2. 

3.  Investigator's  Report  of  Artificial  Flower 
Factory. 

3a.  Notes  on  3. 

4.  Record  of  Family  of  Home  Workers. 
4a.  Notes  on  4. 

The  numerals  in  parentheses  on  the  face  of  each 
card  refer  to  corresponding  notes  on  the  back  of 
the  card. 

Names  and  addresses  have  been  changed  in 
these  records. 


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235 


APPENDIX   B 

OPINION  OF  THE  SUPREME  COURT 
OF  NEW  YORK  ON  THE  FIFTY- 
FOUR  HOUR   LAW 

Supreme  Court — Special  Term,  Kings 
County.    January,  191 3. 

The  People  of  the  State  of  New  York  ex  rel.  William 
Hoelderlin,  relator,  v.  Thomas  Kane,  as  Warden  of 
the  City  Prison  of  the  Borough  of  Brooklyn,  City  of  New 
York,  respondent. 

The  provision  of  section  77  of  the  Labor  Law,  as  amended 
in  191 2,  limiting  the  hours  of  labor  of  minors  and  women 
in  factories  other  than  canning  establishments  to  nine 
hours  a  day  and  fifty-four  hours  a  week  is  not  invalid, 
either  as  to  minors  or  to  women  over  the  age  of  twenty- 
cne  years,  because  interfering  with  the  constitutional 
guaranty  of  liberty.  Minors  of  both  sexes  are  wards  of 
the  State  and  a  distinction  may  legitimately  be  drawn 
under  the  police  power  as  to  permissible  hours  of  labor 
between  adult  women  and  adult  men. 

The  exemption  from  the  general  operation  of  this  statutory 
provision  of  contracts  for  labor  in  canning  factories  from 
the  1 5th  day  of  June  to  the  1 5th  day  of  October  does  not 
deny  the  equal  protection  of  the  law. 

Alfred  J.  Talley  (Denis  R.  O'Brien  of  counsel)  for  relator; 
James  C.  Cropsey,  district  attorney  (Hersey  Egginton,  assis- 
tant district  attorney,  of  counsel),  for  respondent. 

Blackmar,  J. — This  is  a  proceeding  on  habeas  corpus  said 
to  be  brought  to  test  the  constitutionality  of  the  law  limiting 

236 


FIFTY-FOUR  HOUR   LAW 

the  hours  of  labor  of  minors  and  women  in  factories  other  than 
canning  establishments  to  nine  hours  a  day  and  fifty-four 
hours  a  week.  The  respondent  returns  that  he  holds  the 
relator  under  three  commitments  for  the  violation  of  section 
77  of  the  Labor  Law;  one  for  employing  a  male  minor  under 
the  age  of  1 8  years  more  than  fifty-four  hours  a  week;  another 
for  employing  a  female  minor  under  the  age  of  21  years  more 
than  fifty-four  hours  a  week,  and  another  for  employing  a 
female  over  the  age  of  21  years  more  than  fifty-four  hours  a 
week.  The  return  was  traversed,  alleging  the  unconstitu- 
tionality of  section  77  of  the  Labor  Law,  as  amended  in  1 9 1 2, 
and  the  district  attorney,  appearing  for  the  defendant,  de- 
murred to  the  traverse. 

The  case  might  be  summarily  disposed  of  on  the  ground 
that,  whatever  may  be  said  regarding  the  validity  of  the  law 
limiting  the  hours  of  labor  of  adult  women,  it  was  competent 
beyond  question  for  the  Legislature  to  prescribe  such  limita- 
tions in  the  case  of  minors,  who  are  wards  of  the  State,  and 
that  such  provisions  of  the  law  are  plainly  severable.  I  shall 
not,  however,  place  my  decision  on  that  ground,  but  shall 
consider  the  very  question  argued  orally  and  in  briefs,  viz.: 
Whether  it  is  constitutional  for  the  Legislature  to  make  it  a 
crime  to  employ  an  adult  female  to  work  in  a  candy  factory 
more  than  fifty-four  hours  in  a  week. 

It  is  claimed,  first,  that  the  constitutional  guarantee  of 
"liberty"  is  violated  in  that  the  law  in  question  abridges  the 
right  of  both  employer  and  employee  to  contract  for  labor, 
and,  second,  that  the  exemption  of  contracts  for  labor  in 
canning  factories  during  the  summer  season  violates  the  prin- 
ciple that  laws  must  be  uniform  in  their  application  and 
the  provision  in  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the  United 
States  Constitution  forbidding  any  State  to  deny  to  any 
person  within  its  jurisdiction  the  equal  protection  of  the 
law. 

I  propose  to  rest  this  case  on  the  authority  of  reported 
decisions  of  the  courts,  with  a  few  prefatory  remarks  as  to 
their  relative  value. 

Prior  to  the  adoption  of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the 
United  States  Constitution  each  State  decided  for  itself  the 
question  of  the  limitation  of  the  police  power.     It  was  a  ques- 

237 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER  MAKERS 

tion  of  the  domestic  policy  of  the  several  States  and  the 
decisions  of  their  tribunals  upon  it  were  final.  Since  the 
adoption  of  the  amendment  the  liberty  of  the  individual  is 
protected  by  the  United  States  Constitution  against  action 
by  the  States.  All  judicial  questions  of  the  power  of  the 
several  States  to  restrain  liberty  by  the  exercise  of  the  police 
power  are  thus  finally  brought  to  the  arbitrament  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court.  On  this  class  of  questions 
that  is  the  court  of  last  resort  and  its  decisions  are  the  supreme 
authority.  Since  the  enactment  of  that  amendment  the 
courts  of  all  the  States,  with  reference  to  the  rights  therein 
secured  to  individuals,  have  become  courts  of  co-ordinate 
jurisdiction.  Whether  the  decision  comes  from  Maine  or 
Oregon,  from  Minnesota  or  Louisiana,  if  it  sustains  a  statute 
of  the  State  limiting  liberty  in  the  exercise  of  the  police 
power,  it  is  subject  to  review  by  the  Supreme  Court.  The 
courts  of  all  the  States  are  working  together  with  equal 
powers  in  this  field  of  law.  The  decisions  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  upon  the  police  power  are  therefore 
controlling,  and  those  of  the  courts  of  sister  States  may  no 
longer  be  regarded  as  decisions  of  foreign  tribunals;  but  they 
are  entitled  to  that  degree  of  deference  which  is  yielded  to 
courts  of  equal  authority  administering  not  similar  laws,  but 
the  same  law. 

Bearing  this  principle  in  mind  I  proceed  to  an  examination 
of  the  authorities.  Muller  v.  Oregon  (208  U.  S.,  412)  decided 
that  an  act  of  the  Legislature  of  Oregon  prohibiting  the  em- 
ployment of  females  in  any  mechanical  establishment  or  fac- 
tory or  laundry  more  than  ten  hours  during  any  day  is  not 
unconstitutional  so  far  as  respects  laundries.  The  case  differs 
from  the  one  at  bar,  for  in  this  case  the  employment  was  not 
in  a  laundry,  but  in  a  candy  factory,  and  the  legal  limit  is 
not  ten  hours  a  day,  but  nine  hours  a  day  and  fifty-four  hours 
a  week.  That  case,  however,  decides  the  fundamental  propo- 
sition that  for  the  purpose  of  the  application  of  a  law  under 
the  police  power  the  Legislature  may  establish  a  class  com- 
posed of  women  alone,  and  may  limit  the  hours  of  labor  of 
the  individuals  composing  that  class. 

In  State  v.  Somerville  (Washington,  122  Pac.  Rep.,  324, 
decided  in  March,  1912)  a  law  limiting  the  hours  of  labor  of 

238 


FIFTY-FOUR   HOUR   LAW 

women  to  eight  hours  a  day  was  held  constitutional  as  applied 
to  paper  box  manufactories. 

In  Commonwealth  v.  Riley  (210  Mass.,  387),  decided 
January  I,  1912,  an  act  limiting  the  hours  during  which 
women  may  be  employed  in  manufacturing  and  mechanical 
establishments  to  fifty-six  hours  in  one  week  and  ten  hours 
in  one  day  was  upheld. 

In  Ritchie  &  Co.  v.  Wayman  (244  111.,  509),  decided  April 
21,  19 10,  the  courts  of  Illinois  upheld  legislation  forbidding 
the  employment  of  females  in  any  mechanical  establishment, 
factory  or  laundry  more  than  ten  hours  a  day. 

In  Withey  v.  Bloem  (163  Mich.,  419)  a  law  prohibiting  the 
employment  of  women  in  factories  more  than  ten  hours  a 
day  and  fifty-four  hours  a  week  was  held  not  violative  of  the 
United  States  Constitution. 

For  other  cases  in  which  like  legislation  has  been  held  to 
be  constitutional  see  Wenham  v.  State  of  Nebraska  (65 
Nebraska,  394),  Commonwealth  v.  Beatty  (15  Pa.  Sup.  Ct. 
Rep.,  5),  Commonwealth  v.  Hamilton  Mfg.  Co.  (120  Mass., 

383)« 

I  find  practically  nothing  against  all  this  weight  of  author- 
ity. Ritchie  v.  People  (155  Illinois,  98)  has  been  distin- 
guished to  the  point  of  being  overruled  by  the  later  case  of 
Ritchie  &  Co.  v.  Wayman  (244  Illinois,  509).  Matter  of 
Maguire  (57  California,  604)  was  a  case  of  the  employment 
of  a  woman  in  a  bar-room,  and  a  statute  prohibiting  it  was 
declared  unconstitutional  as  violating  section  18,  article  20, 
of  the  California  Constitution,  which  provided  that  "no  per- 
son shall  on  account  of  sex  be  disqualified  from  entering  upon 
or  pursuing  any  lawful  business,  vocation  or  profession." 
This  case  obviously  is  no  authority  for  the  relator.  Burcher 
v.  People  (41  Colorado,  495)  was  also  decided  upon  the 
peculiar  wording  of  the  Constitution  of  Colorado. 

The  relator  appeals  to  Lochner  v.  New  York  (198  U.  S., 
45).  This  is  the  famous  bakeshop  case.  It  holds  that  the 
State  of  New  York  cannot  limit  the  hours  of  employees  in 
bakeries  to  ten  hours  a  day  without  infringing  the  liberty  of 
the  individual  to  contract  for  his  labor  guaranteed  by  the 
Fourteenth  Amendment.  The  case  is  exceedingly  interest- 
ing.    It  arose  in  the  County  Court  of  Oneida  County,  in  this 

239 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

State,  and  progressed  through  the  Appellate  Division  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  the  Court  of  Appeals  and  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court.  Twenty-two  judges  participated  in  the  sev- 
eral decisions.  The  only  unanimous  decision  was  by  the 
County  Court,  where  there  was  but  one  judge.  I  n  the  Appel- 
late Division  the  justices  divided  three  to  two;  in  the  Court 
of  Appeals,  four  to  three,  and  in  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court,  five  to  four.  There  were  nine  separate  opinions 
written.  Of  the  twenty-two  judges  twelve  were  of  the 
opinion  that  the  law  was  constitutional  and  ten  that  it  was 
not.  The  opinion  of  the  minority  prevailed  because  five  of 
the  ten  judges  who  thought  the  law  unconstitutional  were 
members  of  the  court  of  last  resort.  What  does  this  remark- 
able divergence  of  opinion  suggest?  I  do  not  find  in  the  nine 
opinions  any  reason  for  thinking  that  there  were  any  differences 
as  to  the  rules  of  law  governing  the  case.  The  power  of  the 
State  to  enact  laws  for  the  welfare  of  the  people,  notwith- 
standing the  constitutional  guarantee  of  the  liberty  of  the 
individual,  was  not  questioned.  The  difficulty  was  in  deter- 
mining whether  the  law  in  question  was  in  furtherance  of 
public  welfare.  The  courts  were  approaching  a  question  of 
political  economy.  So  Judge  Edward  T.  Bartlett,  of  the 
Court  of  Appeals,  speaks  of  a  "coming  day  when  the  Legis- 
lature, in  the  full  panoply  of  paternalism,"  &c.  Justice  Peck- 
ham,  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  says  "statutes  of 
the  nature  of  that  under  review,  limiting  the  hours  in  which 
grown  and  intelligent  men  may  labor  to  earn  their  living,  are 
mere  meddlesome  interferences  with  the  rights  of  the  indi- 
vidual"; and  Justice  Holmes  says  "this  case  is  decided  upon 
an  economic  theory  which  a  large  part  of  the  country  does 
not  entertain,"  and  again  "but  a  constitution  is  not  intended 
to  embody  a  particular  economic  theory,  whether  of  pater- 
nalism or  the  organic  relation  of  the  citizen  to  the  State  or 
of  laissez  faire."  The  fact  that  economic  theories  entertained 
by  the  judges  influence  their  decisions  as  to  the  limits  of  the 
police  power  should  not  be  excluded  from  the  mind  while 
studying  the  subject.  Neither  can  such  decisions  be  regarded 
as  landmarks  permanently  defining  such  limits.  Laws  which 
may  be  meddlesome  interferences  with  the  liberty  of  the  indi- 
vidual in  a  primitive  state  may,  in  a  highly  organized  society, 

240 


FIFTY-FOUR   HOUR    LAW 

become  essential  to  public  welfare  or  even  to  the  continuance 
of  civil  liberty  itself.  The  pace  at  which  courts  move  in  sym- 
pathy with  fast  developing  economic  ideas  may  be  illustrated 
by  Lochner  v.  New  York,  the  hesitating  utterances  of  divided 
courts  in  1905,  followed  by  Muller  v.  Oregon,  the  confident 
pronouncement  of  a  united  bench  in  1908.  Whatever  may 
be  said  of  Lochner  v.  New  York,  it  is  so  distinguished  by  the 
later  case  of  Muller  v.  Oregon  that  it  is  no  authority  for  the 
relator  in  the  case  at  bar. 

Neither  does  People  v.  Williams  (189  N.  Y.,  131)  sustain 
the  relator's  claim.  That  case  decided  only  that  it  was  not 
competent  for  the  Legislature  to  prohibit  a  woman  from  work- 
ing in  a  factory  before  6  in  the  morning  and  after  9  o'clock 
at  night.  The  act  had  no  relation  to  the  number  of  hours 
of  labor.  To  work  a  half  hour  or  less  in  a  factory  before  or 
after  the  forbidden  hours  violated  the  law,  even  if  that  were 
the  extent  of  the  whole  day's  work.  The  case  is  decided 
largely  on  the  authority  of  Lochner  v.  New  York,  and  Muller 
v.  Oregon  forbids  our  drawing  therefrom  any  general  rule  that 
labor  legislation  for  women  alone  is  unconstitutional.  The 
remark  therein  made  that  women  are  not  wards  of  the  State 
is  unquestionably  correct.  This  wardship  depends  on  pre- 
sumed (in  the  case  of  infants)  or  proved  (in  the  case  of 
lunatics)  mental  incompetency.  No  one  claims  that  the  dif- 
ferentiation of  women  from  men,  as  subjects  of  legislation, 
depends  on  mental  conditions.  The  justification  for  legisla- 
tion special  to  women  rests,  as  is  said  by  Justice  Brewer  in 
Muller  v.  Oregon,  on  the  fact  of  common  knowledge  that 
women's  physical  structure  and  the  performance  of  maternal 
functions  place  her  at  a  disadvantage  in  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence. The  element  of  invalidity  in  the  statute  under  con- 
sideration which  was  developed  in  People  v.  Williams  is 
plainly  severable. 

The  authority  upon  the  question  seems  complete.  The 
power  of  the  Legislature  to  create  a  class,  consisting  of  women 
only  and  limit  their  hours  of  labor  is  established  in  Muller 
v.  Oregon.  That  the  limitation  may  be  to  fifty-four  hours 
a  week  is  decided  by  State  v.  Somerville  and  Withey  v.  Bloem, 
and  in  these  two  cases  the  regulation  was  held  valid  as  applied 
to  the  manufacture  of  paper  boxes  and  seals  for  locking  freight 

241 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

cars,  occupations  apparently  as  light  and  innocuous  as  candy 
making. 

But  the  relator  claims  that  the  exemption  of  the  work  in 
canning  factories  from  the  1 5th  of  June  to  the  1 5th  of  October 
renders  the  law  unconstitutional.  A  law  is  a  rule  of  conduct. 
It  must  apply  alike  to  all  under  like  conditions.  Nor  can  any 
State  deny  to  any  person  within  its  jurisdiction  the  equal 
protection  of  the  law.  A  law,  therefore,  cannot  make  an  act 
criminal  as  to  one  person  which  is  innocent  in  another  under 
like  circumstances  and  conditions.  But  as  circumstances  and 
conditions  differ,  classification  of  those  subject  to  the  law  may, 
and  often  must,  be  made  for  the  purpose  of  securing  that 
very  uniformity  which  is  essential  to  law.  The  precise  ques- 
tion in  this  case  is  whether  the  Legislature  may,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  regulating  the  hours  of  labor  therein,  establish  a  class 
consisting  of  factories,  as  defined  by  the  law  of  New  York, 
except  canning  factories.  This  depends  on  whether  there  is 
a  difference  in  conditions  which  warrants  the  classification. 
Resorting  to  authority,  we  find  that  this  very  question  has 
been  decided  in  State  v.  Somerville  (Washington,  122  Pac. 
Rep.,  324),  and  in  Withey  v.  Bloem  (163  Michigan,  419)  and 
in  Mt.  Vernon,  &c,  Co.  v.  Frankfort,  &c,  Co.  (Maryland,  75 
Atl.  Rep.,  1 05).  These  are  all  cases  in  which  canning  factories 
have  been  exempted  from  the  operation  of  laws  fixing  the 
hours  of  labor  for  women  and  children  in  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments. 

The  relator  has  presented  to  me  a  record  of  evidence  taken 
this  year  before  a  committee  of  the  Senate  of  the  State  of  New 
York.  It  is  claimed  that  this  record  shows  that  conditions 
in  canning  establishments  are  more  injurious  to  the  health 
of  women  and  children  than  in  many  other  factories,  for 
instance,  than  the  candy  factories.  But  this  is  a  subject 
upon  which  the  court  cannot  take  evidence.  Classification 
for  the  purpose  of  confining  the  operation  of  laws  is  a  legis- 
lative function.  Every  statute  presupposes  a  finding  by  the 
Legislature  of  the  facts  necessary  to  bring  the  act  within  its 
powers.  In  ascertaining  these  facts,  the  Legislature  is  not 
limited  to  the  narrow  field  of  legal  evidence.  It  may  draw 
its  information  from  any  source  open  to  mankind.  If  the 
courts  may  review  this  finding  of  the  Legislature,  with  the 

242 


FIFTY-FOUR   HOUR   LAW 

aid  of  such  limited  means  of  knowledge  as  legal  evidence 
affords,  an  act  might  be  held  constitutional  in  one  case  and 
otherwise  in  another,  dependent  upon  the  industry  with 
which  the  evidence  was  collected  and  the  skill  with  which  it 
was  presented.  In  State  v.  Somerville  (supra)  evidence  was 
offered  that  the  work  was  light  and  harmless,  and  the  court 
held  it  irrelevant,  saying:  "Courts  in  passing  upon  the  rea- 
sonableness or  unreasonableness  of  a  statute,  and  deciding 
whether  the  Legislature  has  exceeded  its  powers  to  such  an 
extent  as  to  render  the  act  invalid,  must  look  at  the  terms 
of  the  act  itself,  and  bring  to  their  assistance  such  scientific, 
economic,  physical  and  other  pertinent  facts  as  are  common 
knowledge,  and  of  which  they  can  take  judicial  notice,"  and 
again,  "in  all  cases  pertaining  to  the  police  power  the  Legis- 
lature is  supreme,  unless  the  general  application  of  the  law 
does  violence  to  the  common  knowledge  of  men,  in  which 
event  a  court  might  properly  intervene."  What  matter  of 
common  knowledge  instructs  me  that  conditions  in  canning 
factories  require  the  limitation  of  the  hours  of  women  therein 
in  the  same  measure  as  in  other  factories?  They  may  or  may 
not.  I  do  not  know.  Neither  can  I  take  evidence  on  the 
subject.  I  may  read  the  act  and  bring  to  my  assistance 
matters  of  common  knowledge,  such  as  a  court  may  take  cog- 
nizance of  without  evidence,  and  unless  it  thereby  appears 
that  there  is  no  reasonable  basis  for  the  exception,  I  must 
trust  to  the  wisdom  of  the  Legislature  and  uphold  the  act. 
The  information  received  by  the  court  in  Muller  v.  Oregon 
(see  208  U.  S.,  p.  419),  such  as  the  statutes  of  other  States 
and  foreign  nations,  reports  of  committees,  bureaus  and  com- 
missions, proceedings  of  medical  societies,  and  matters  of  that 
kind,  are  legitimate  means  of  ascertaining  what  are  matters 
of  common  knowledge.  Such  things  I  may  receive,  but  not 
evidence  of  conditions  in  certain  canning  factories  such  as  is 
offered  in  this  case.  If  the  inquiry  now  in  progress  shows 
that  the  exception  of  canning  factories  is  not  justified,  we 
may  presume  that  the  law  will  be  corrected  by  the  Legisla- 
ture. But  irrespective  of  conditions  in  these  factories,  it  is 
for  the  Legislature  to  determine  whether  the  interest  of  the 
public  in  preserving  perishable  fruits  is  more  important  than 
the  health  of  female  and  minor  employees.     However  loath 

243 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

the  courts  might  be  to  acquiesce  in  the  wisdom  or  humanity 
of  such  a  decision,  yet  it  is  a  matter  of  legislative  and  not 
judicial  cognizance. 

I  have  not  thought  it  necessary  to  decide  the  interesting 
question  presented  by  the  district  attorney  whether  an  excep- 
tion introduced  into  an  existing  law  could  have  the  effect  of 
invalidating  the  law. 

The  relator  appeals  to  the  court  in  the  name  of  liberty. 
He  claims  that  liberty  is  protected  by  the  constitution,  which 
was  enacted  by  the  people  themselves,  and  that  none  but  the 
people,  not  even  their  agent,  the  Legislature,  has  dispensing 
power  over  it.  He  claims  that  the  constitution  itself,  in 
Article  XIII,  section  i,  requires  that  every  judge  before 
entering  upon  the  duties  of  his  office  shall  take  an  oath  to 
support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  that  this  means  to 
support  them  even  against  the  acts  of  the  Legislature.  In 
all  this  he  is  right.  Such  is  the  law,  and  such  is  the  duty  of 
all  courts.  What  is  the  constitutional  liberty  which  every 
judge  is  to  protect?  It  is  civil  or  political  liberty.  Man  in 
a  state  of  nature,  as  the  nineteenth  century  philosophers  were 
wont  to  say,  has  an  inherent  right,  as  a  free  moral  agent,  to 
act,  think  and  speak  as  he  pleases.  When  he  becomes  a  mem- 
ber of  society  he  necessarily  surrenders  a  portion  of  that 
liberty  in  the  interest  of  the  rights  of  others  and  the  welfare 
of  society.  The  modicum  of  liberty  remaining  after  such 
surrender  is  civil  or  political  liberty.  An  act  of  the  Legis- 
lature in  the  interest  of  the  health,  morals  or  safety  of  the 
community  operates  within  the  field  of  the  surrendered  rights 
and  does  not  abridge  civil  liberty.  If,  then,  the  statute  for- 
bidding the  relator  to  employ  in  his  candy  factory  minors 
under  a  certain  age  and  women  more  than  fifty-four  hours 
a  week  is  a  measure  in  the  interest  of  the  welfare  of  society, 
it  does  not  impair  his  civil  liberty,  although  it  does  limit  his 
right  to  contract  for  labor.  I  find  this  decided  already  by 
authority  and,  fully  and  sympathetically  concurring  in  the 
reason  by  which  the  result  was  reached,  follow  the  precedents. 

The  development  of  the  industrial  life  of  the  nation,  the 
pressure  of  women  and  children  entering  the  industrial  field 
in  competition  with  men  physically  better  qualified  for  the 

244 


FIFTY-FOUR  HOUR   LAW 

struggle,  has  compelled  them  to  submit  to  conditions  and 
terms  of  service  which  it  cannot  be  presumed  they  would 
freely  choose.  Their  liberty  to  contract  to  sell  their  labor 
may  be  but  another  name  for  involuntary  service  created  by 
existing  industrial  conditions.  A  law  which  restrains  the 
liberty  to  contract  may  tend  to  emancipate  them  by  enabling 
them  to  act  as  they  choose  and  not  as  competitive  conditions 
compel.  All  these  considerations  are  for  the  Legislature,  and 
for  the  Legislature  alone.  It  is  only  where  the  statute  con- 
trols conduct  in  matters  plainly  and  obviously  indifferent  to 
the  welfare  of  the  public,  or  any  portion  thereof,  that  the 
courts  can  pronounce  the  act  violative  of  civil  liberty.  Cer- 
tainly this  is  not  such  a  case. 
The  writ  is  dismissed  and  the  relator  remanded  to  custody. 


245 


APPENDIX   C 

LAW   ENACTED   MARCH,    191 3,   PRO- 
HIBITING  NIGHT  WORK   FOR 
ALL  WOMEN 

An  Act  to  amend  the  labor  law,  in  relation  to  protecting  the 
health  and  morals  of  females  employed  in  factories  by 
providing  an  adequate  period  of  rest  at  night. 

The  People  of  the  State  of  New  York,  represented  in  Senate 
and  Assembly,  do  enact  as  follows: 

Section  i  .  Chapter  thirty-six  of  the  laws  of  nineteen  hun- 
dred and  nine,  entitled  "An  Act  relating  to  labor,  being  chap- 
ter thirty-one  of  the  consolidated  laws,"  is  hereby  amended 
by  inserting  therein,  after  section  ninety-three-a,  a  new  sec- 
tion, to  be  section  ninety-three-b,  to  read  as  follows: 

93-b.  Period  of  rest  at  night  for  women.  In  order  to  pro- 
tect the  health  and  morals  of  females  employed  in  factories 
by  providing  an  adequate  period  of  rest  at  night  no  woman 
shall  be  employed  or  permitted  to  work  in  any  factory  in  this 
state  before  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  or  after  ten  o'clock 
in  the  evening  of  any  day. 

Section  2.  This  act  shall  take  effect  July  first,  nineteen 
hundred  and  thirteen. 


246 


APPENDIX   D 

SOCIETY   FOR  APPRENTICES,   PARIS, 
FRANCE 

Societe  -pour  V assistance  Paternelle  aux  Enfants  Employes 
dans  les  Industries  des  Fleurs  et  des  Plumes,  Paris. 

With  the  growth  of  the  floral  industry  in  the  middle  of  the 
19th  century,  employers  found  themselves  in  need  of  appren- 
tices and  formed  in  1 866  the  above  named  society.  It  is  a  de- 
pendency of  the  employer's  syndicate  and  "undertakes  to  place, 
free  of  charge,  in  apprenticeship,  with  a  regular  contract, 
children  whom  their  families  want  to  have  profit  by  the 
advantages  of  the  society.  All  its  efforts  tend  to  the  morali- 
zation  and  perfecting  of  this  apprenticeship,  and  lay  stress 
on  oversight  and  encouragement." 

The  object  of  the  society  is  to  assure  a  good  trade  appren- 
ticeship and  to  look  after,  help  and  influence  for  good  by  all 
means  that  it  esteems  useful,  children  employed  as  appren- 
tices in  the  flower  and  feather  industries. 

Its  methods  are  the  following: 

a.  The  placing  in  apprenticeship  of  children  under  the 
oversight  and  protection  of  delegates  of  the  society. 

b.  The  development  of  trade  efficiency  by  means  of  com- 
petitive trade  contests. 

c.  The  holding  of  free  classes  in  elementary  instruction 
and  design,  open  to  all  flower  and  feather  apprentices  (lend- 
ing library  for  home  use). 

d.  The  awarding  of  honorary  prizes  to  teachers,  heads  of 
houses,  foremen,  forewomen,  workers  and  apprentices,  and 
all  others  who  help  the  society  in  its  task. 

e.  The  maintenance  of  family  groups  (private  boarding 

247 


ARTIFICIAL   FLOWER   MAKERS 

houses)  which  assure  board,  lodging  and  necessary  care  to 
young  girls,  whose  parents  or  employers  cannot  provide  these. 

f.  A  yearly  prize  day  for  the  distribution  of  savings  bank 
books  and  books  to  the  winners  of  the  various  competitions. 

g.  And  all  other  methods  which  the  experience  or  inclina- 
tion of  members  may  sugges'. 

Contract. 

Between  the  undersigned: 

i  st.     Mr Address 

engaged  in  the  profession  of 

2nd.    The  minor born  in 

the has  obtained  her  school  certifi- 
cate on represented  in  the  contract  by 

Mr Address 

who  serves  as 

The  following  agreement  has  been  made: 

Art.  I .     Mr agrees  to  take  the 

undersigned  girl  as  apprentice  and  to  keep  her  during 

consecutive  years  beginning 

and  ending 

Art.  II.    To  teach  her  during  this  time  the  trade  of 

freely  and  fully  in  such  a  way  that  she  will 

be  able  to  practice  this  trade  at  the  end  of  her  apprenticeship; 
never  to  employ  her  for  any  other  work  but  that  of  her  pro- 
fession; neither  for  frequent  or  distant  errands  nor  for  the 
carrying  of  heavy  burdens.  To  act  in  conformity  with  arti- 
cles 2,  3,4,  5,  10,  1 1,  and  14,  of  the  law  of  November  2nd,  1892, 
"on  the  work  of  children,  minor  girls  and  women  in  industrial 
employment." 

Art.  III.    To  provide  her  with  necessary  tools. 

Art.  IV.  To  keep  her  conduct  and  habits  under  constant 
supervision,  to  treat  her  gently,  like  a  good  father  (un  bon 
pere  de  famille)  avoiding  all  corporal  punishment  or  priva- 
tion of  food. 

Art.  V.  To  help  her  to  fulfil  her  family  duties,  by  allow- 
ing her  to  go  out  on  Sundays  and  Holidays  after  an  agreement 
with  parents  or  guardian  as  to  hours. 

248 


PROTECTION  OF  APPRENTICES 

Art.  VI.  To  accept  the  supervision  of  persons  authorized 
by  the  society;  to  inform  them  of  serious  faults  of  which 
the  apprentice  may  be  guilty,  and,  in  the  case  of  serious  com- 
plaint, immediately  to  notify  delegates  of  the  society  and  the 
parents.  To  notify  the  latter  immediately  in  the  event  of 
the  illness  of  the  apprentice,  who  shall  be  given  all  necessary 
care  until  she  can  be  sent  to  her  family. 

Art.  VII.  To  allow  her  to  take  part  in  the  yearly  trade 
competition  organized  by  the  "Assistance  Paternelle  des 
Fleurs  et  des  Plumes,"  and  to  provide  her  with  materials  neces- 
sary for  these  competitions.  There  may  be  no  forfeiture  of 
this  article,  except  by  previous  contract  between  the  manu- 
facturer and  the  Executive  Council. 

Art.  VIII.  On  the  other  hand,  the  apprentice  agrees, 
during  the  time  fixed  above,  to  receive  with  attention,  re- 
spect, and  docility,  the  lessons  and  orders  of  her  master,  and 
to  make  up  all  loss  of  time  to  him  at  the  end  of  her  appren- 
ticeship, whether  such  loss  arises  from  illness  or  any  other 
cause,  provided  it  exceeds  a  fortnight  in  duration. 

Art.  IX.  The  representative  of  the  apprentice  promises 
for  his  part  to  use  his  authority  to  keep  the  latter  in  her 
workroom  until  the  date  of  expiration  of  the  contract  and  to 
make  her  hard  working,  docile,  and  devoted  to  the  interests 

of  Mr and  faithful  in  the  execution 

of  the  regulations  of  the  society. 

He  consents  besides  to  allow  her  to  be  under  the  oversight 
of  the  society's  delegates  [here  to  be  indicated  the  other  obliga- 
tions of  the  employer  or  of  the  apprentice's  representative, 
for  food,  care,  or  any  other  condition;  also  any  particular 
provisions  which  the  parties  may  wish  to  state  in  the  contract, 
especially  conditions  of  payment]. 

Additional  Provisions. 

In  the  present  act  has  intervened  Mr , 

Delegate  of  the  Society,  acting  in  his  own  name,  by  virtue  of 
the  powers  that  have  been  specially  conferred  upon  him  by 
the  Executive  Council,  to  declare  that  the  Assistance  Pater- 
nelle takes  under  its  protection  the  young 

who  is  required  from  this  day  to  enjoy  all  the  advantages, 
resulting  from  present  or  future  statutes  and  regulations. 

249 


ARTIFICIAL    FLOWER   MAKERS 

The  representative  of  the  society,  in  common  accord  with 
the  parties,  agrees  to  oversee  the  legal  execution  of  the  present 
contract;  they  are  entitled  to  inform  themselves  of  the  prog- 
ress of  the  apprentice's  work,  as  stated  in  Art.  VI. 

The  contracting  parties  promise,  in  case  of  disputed  points, 
to  have  recourse  to  the  arbitration  of  persons  whom  the 
society  may  name  for  the  purpose,  before  taking  legal  action. 

In  case  of  non-agreement,  the  society  will  use  its  influence 
on  the  side  of  every  effort  to  fulfil  the  present  contract, 
although  it  can  never  in  any  respect  incur  legal  responsi- 
bility for  the  same. 

No  forfeiture  may  be  stipulated  by  the  present  act. 

In  the  case  where,  on  the  part  of  master  or  apprentice, 
there  may  be  reason  for  the  canceling  of  the  contract,  the 
Conseil  des  Prud'hommes  de  la  Seine  (section  des  tissus)  has 
the  sole  right  to  fix  the  damages  that  may  result  from  such 
canceling.  (The  first  two  months  of  apprenticeship  are  con- 
sidered as  a  trial  period  during  which  the  contract  may  be 
annulled  by  the  will  of  either  party.  In  this  case  no  indem- 
nity will  be  allowed  on  either  side.  Art.  XIV  of  the  law  of 
1 85 1  on  Apprenticeship  Contracts.) 

The  present  contract  is  not  valid  unless  signed  by  the 
above  named  delegate  and  by  the  president  of  the  society. 

One  copy  shall  be  placed  in  the  records  of  the  society. 

Three  copies  made  in  Paris  on and 

signed  after  reading: 


Employer. 


Apprentice's  Representative 

Delegate President. 


250 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Age  of  Home  Workers,  ioo- 
103 

Age  of  Shop  Workers:  in  all 
manufacturing  industries,  in 
flower  making,  and  other 
specified  industries,  25,  26; 
in  flower  and  feather  trade 
in  United  States,  1880- 19 10, 
4;  school,  age  at  leaving, 
203-205;  under  sixteen,  23- 
27 

Apprentices  and  Learners  in 
New  York:  attitude  of  em- 
ployers, 191,  197,  198;  atti- 
tude of  older  workers,  199; 
cheap  work  and  "green 
hands,"  191,  192;  group  sys- 
tem in  shops,  192-194;  home 
work  before  going  into  shop, 
196;  manufacturers  willing 
to  take  learners,  number, 
198;  reasons  for  choosing  the 
flower  trade,  200-205 ;  school, 
age  at  leaving,  203-205; 
school  classes,  attitude  of 
employers  and  workers,  205- 
212;  specialization  of  differ- 
ent processes,  194-196;  uni- 
formity of  method  lacking, 
191;  wages,  192,  194,  196, 
199 

Apprentices  and  Learners  in 
Paris:  convent  classes,  185; 
cost,  to  girl,  in  time  and 
money,  147,  155;  evening 
class  of  independent  work- 
ers, experiment,  188,  189; 
four  ways  of  learning  the 
trade,  183;  parental  instruc- 
tion,    189;     sub-contractor 


system,  185-188;  tradeschool 
classes,  184;  wages,  186 

Association  of  Flower  Manu- 
facturers, 198 

Austrians:  in  the  flower  trade, 
28,  29 


Baltimore  :  number  of  women  in 
the  trade,  7 

Bohemians:  in  the  flower  trade, 
28,  29 

Branching:  distinct  department 
in  the  factory,  20,  2 1 ;  most 
remunerative  work,  63 ;  most 
skilled  work  in  the  trade,  17; 
one  of  three  processes  of 
flower  making,  15;  wages 
paid,  64 


Chagot,  T.:  manufacturer  in 
New  York  in  1840,  3 

Chicago:  number  of  women  in 
the  trade,  1905,  7 

Children:  ages  and  grades  in 
public  schools  attended,  102, 
103;  ages  of  home  workers, 
100,  10 1 ;  evil  effect  of  home- 
work system,  103, 213;  home 
workers,  94-107;  labor  law 
does  not  touch  home  work- 
ers, 100;  number  employed 
under  sixteen,  1880-1910,  4; 
Paris,  absence  of  child  labor, 
169;  prohibition  of  employ- 
ment, legislative  possibili- 
ties, 222;  relation  of  their 
work  to  earning  power  of 


253 


NDEX 


family,  107;  shop  workers, 
25-27;  youngest  child  workei 
eighteen  months  old,  10 1 

Chinese:  makers  of  artificial 
flowers,  1 

Cost  of  Living:  in  Paris,  164- 
167 

Designing  of  Flowers:  impor- 
tance, to  success  of  firm,  17- 
19;  wages  paid,  64 

Dressmaking:  New  York,  num- 
ber of  women  employed,  by 
ages,  25,  26;  Paris,  wages, 
166,  167 

Dyeing:  color  charts  from  Paris, 
14;  French  superiority,  146, 
1 56;  physical  effects  of  dye, 
131;  task  of  the  dyer,  15; 
wages  paid,  64 

Earnings.     See  IV ages 
Egyptians:  makers  of  artificial 

flowers,  1 
Employers'  Syndicate  of  Paris, 

186 
England:  introduction  of  flower 

making,  2 

Factory  Laws.  See  Law  Con- 
cerning Labor 

Fami li  es.  See  Home  Conditions; 
Home  Workers 

Fathers.     See  Parents 

Fatigue:  caused  by  long  periods 
of  work,  131 

Feather  Flowers,  2 

Feather  Trade:  census  figures, 
1850,  1870,  1880  to  1910,  3- 
6;  combined  with  flower 
trade,  2-6;  concentration  in 
New  York,  6;  decrease,  ap- 
parent, 1900-1905,  5;  fancy 
feather  manufacture,  53;  in- 
crease in    19 10,  due  to  wil- 


low plumes,  6;  location  of 
shops  in  New  York,  8;  num- 
ber of  establishments,  1880- 
1910,  4-6;  number  of  women 
employed,  in  United  States, 
4-6;  objections  to  trade,  54, 
55;  relation  to  the  flower 
trade,  11-13,  52-55;  relation 
to  the  millinery  trade,  1 1 ; 
two  branches,  1 1 ;  wages,  61 ; 
willow  plumes  and  the  de- 
pression of  trade  by  the 
home-work  system,  218,  219 
Firms.  See  Manufacturers 
Flower  Makers'  Union,  New 

York,  36 
Flower  Making:  art  turned 
into  a  trade,  13;  color  af- 
fected by  speed  of  work,  145; 
color  charts,  14;  difference 
between  the  workers  in 
Paris  and  New  York,  189; 
divisions  of  work,  15;  early 
times,  1;  introduction  into 
United  States  by  French 
immigrants,  2;  materials 
used,  14,  155;  models,  17-19; 
most  beautiful  roses  in  the 
world,  1 54;  processes  in  New 
York,  14-17;  processes  in 
Paris,  152,  155-159;  secret 
of  flower  making,  155,  158, 
1 59;  specializing  in  the  work- 
room, 20-22;  speed  of  work, 
as  shown  in  quality  of  flow- 
ers, 145;  tools  used,  14,  15 

Flower  Trade:  beginnings  in 
France,  1 50;  census  figures, 
1850,  1870,  1880-1910,  3-6; 
combined  with  feather  trade, 
2-6;  concentration  in  New 
York,  6;  craftsmanship  not 
encouraged,  39;  decrease,  ap- 
parent, 1900- 1905,  5;  fac- 
tory industry,  with  its  evils, 
1,  20-22;  future  trade  de- 
pends upon  skill  of  workers, 
214;  location  of  establish- 
ments in  New  York,  8,  91; 


254 


INDEX 


nationality  of  workers,  23, 
28-35;  number  of  establish- 
ments, 1 880- 19 1 0,4-6;  num- 
ber of  women  employed,  4- 
6,  23-27, 40,  by  ages,  25,  26; 
Parisian,  144-190;  Parisian, 
investigation  by  E.  S.  Ser- 
geant, 148;  reasons  for 
women  choosing  the  trade, 
200-205 ;  relation  to  feather 
trade,  11-13,  52-55;  rela- 
tion to  millinery  trade,  8,  1 1, 
43,  215;  school  classes,  at- 
titude of  employers  and 
workers,  205-2 1 2 ;  success  de- 
pends upon  work  of  design- 
ing, 17-19;  summary  of  con- 
ditions, 213-224;  uncertain 
conditions  of  trade,  effect  of, 
18-20,  215-217 

Flowers  and  Plants:  for  deco- 
ration, 8,  9 

Foliage  Making  :  wages  paid,  64 

Foreigners:  in  the  flower  trade, 
23,28-35,  115 

French:  introduced  flower  mak- 
ing into  United  States,  2; 
learned  flower  making  from 
Italy,  2.     See  also  Paris 


Germans:  in  the  flower  trade,  23, 

29,31.32 
Goffering:  process,  15;  wages, 

64 

Hand  Worker:  has  no  mechan- 
ical rival,  1 

Home  Conditions:  "breaking" 
family  of  the  flower  worker, 
79;  children,  dependent,  78; 
contributors  to  the  family 
income,  75-78;  fathers'  occu- 
pations and  wages,  75,  76; 
few  women  board  or  live 
alone,  74;  housework  respon- 


sibilities, 84-86;  location  of 
homes  near  shops,  74;  mar- 
ried women  in  the  shops,  74; 
mothers  as  wage-earners, 
77;  overcrowding  in  the 
home,  83,  139;  Paris,  cost  of 
living  and  attractiveness  of 
homes,  164-168;  persons  per 
room,  139;  rent  paid  month- 
ly, 84;  starving  conditions 
mean  starvation  wages,  72; 
stories  told  by  the  flower 
makers,  80-82,  86;  wage- 
earners  other  than  the  flower 
makers,  75-78 

Home-Work  System:  conditions 
of  employment  a  menace  to 
standardsof  work  and  wages, 
89;  evil  effect  of,  on  stand- 
ards of  industry,  and  on 
children,  93, 94, 99,  100,  103; 
exploitation  of  childhood 
and  of  the  unskilled,  213; 
failure  of  New  York  state  to 
deal  successfully  with  the 
problem,  136-138;  greatest 
enemy  of  artistic  work,  218; 
legal  regulation,  178;  growth 
fostered  by  increasing  neces- 
sity that  wives  become  wage- 
earners,  116,  117;  legis- 
lative prohibition  would  im- 
prove conditions,  222-224; 
Paris,  168-179;  spread  of, 
due  to  changes  in  nationality, 
30;  wage  scale  depressed  by 
system,  218,  219;  willow 
plume  making  and  the  de- 
pression of  trade,  218,  219 

Home  Workers  in  New  York: 
bargaining,  effect  of,  on  liv- 
ing conditions,  1 1 1 ;  chil- 
dren's labor,  94-107;  chil- 
dren's work,  relation  of,  to 
earning  power  of  family,  1 07; 
contributors  to  the  family 
income,  114;  families  de- 
scribed, representative  of 
the  group,  94-99;  grade  of 


255 


INDEX 


work  given  out,  90;  length  of 
time  at  work,  1 14;  names 
and  addresses  in  department 
of  labor,  91 ;  neighborhood  in 
which  workers  live,  92;  no 
connection  with  feather 
trade,  12;  number  in  the 
trade,  90;  persons  per  room, 
in  families,  139;  resource  for 
employers  in  busy  season, 
57;  shop  workers'  evening 
work,  134-136;  summary  of 
conditions  in  the  home,  99; 
sweated  industry,  22;  under 
sixteen  years  of  age,  nearly 
one  half,  100;  wages,  95-99, 
104-108;  wages  tend  down- 
ward, opinions  and  expe- 
riences of  workers,  109-1 1 1 ; 
weekly  earnings  of  families 
by  number  in  each  family, 
106;  youngest  child  worker 
eighteen  months  old,  101. 
See  also  Home  Conditions 

Home  Workers  in  Paris:  ex- 
pert work,  168;  hours,  177; 
number,  150;  unreliability, 
159;  wages,  171-177 

Hours  of  Labor:  daily  hours  of 
work,  when  not  working 
overtime,  124;  fifty-four- 
hour  law  passed  in  1912, 
121-123;  leaving  time,  when 
not  working  overtime,  125; 
letter  written  by  Italian 
Girls'  Industrial  League, 
122;  nine-hour  day,  122; 
noon  recess,  126;  opening 
time  for  shops,  124;  over- 
time, legal  and  illegal,  128; 
overtime,  violations  of  the 
law,  129-13 1 ;  Paris,  177, 
178;  weekly  hours  of  work, 
when  not  working  overtime, 
1 2 7.  See  al so  / rregularity  of 
Employment 

Hungarians:  in  the  flower  trade, 
28,  29 


Imported  Flowers  and  Feath- 
ers: value,  144 

Inspection:  of  tenement  house 
conditions,  137-140 

Instruction.  See  Apprentices 
and  Learners;  School  Classes 

Irish:  in  the  flower  trade,  29,  31, 

Irregularity  of  Employment, 
40-57;  fluctuations  in  num- 
ber of  women  employed 
during  year,  40, 43 ;  length  of 
time  women  employed  in 
latest  positions,  46;  manu- 
facturers make  no  effort  to 
lengthen  seasons  of  employ- 
ment, 56;  Parisian  workers, 
161;  part  time,  43;  reasons 
for  leaving  positions,  49; 
reasons  for  short  seasons, 
43;  relation  of  flower  and 
feather  seasons,  53-55;  sea- 
sons vary  in  different  shops, 
47,  48;  time  lost  in  year 
preceding  date  of  interview, 
50,  51;  uncertainty  of  fash- 
ion and  its  effect,  215-217. 
See  also  Hours 


Ita 


Ita 


Ita 


lian  Girls'  Industrial 
League:  letter  sent  to  New 
York  legislature  when  labor 
bill  was  pending,  122 

lians:  attitude  toward  their 
work,  34,  35;  changed  the 
class  of  v/ork,  23;  cheapen 
the  trade  and  drive  out  other 
nationalities,  23,  29,  30;  con- 
centration in  a  few  trades, 
33;  foster  growth  of  home- 
work system,  116;  number 
by  nativity  of  parents  and 
general  occupations,  3 1 ;  un- 
derbid the  standard  wage, 
30,  67;  wages  compared  with 
those  of  other  nationalities, 
67-69 

ly:  introduced  flower  making 
into  France,  2 


256 


INDEX 


Jews:  attempts  to  organize  trade 
union,  36;  attitude  toward 
their  work,  34,  35;  changed 
the  class  of  work,  23 


Labor  Unions.  See  Trade 
Unionism 

Law  Concerning  Labor:  chil- 
dren, employment  of,  123; 
does  not  establish  definite 
standard  of  air  tests  or  light- 
ing, 120;  fails  to  control  child 
labor  among  home  workers, 
100;  home  work  and  the 
failure  of  the  licensing  sys- 
tem, 137,  140,  141;  hours  of 
work  of  women  and  children, 
121-123;  licensing  of  tene- 
ment house  manufacture, 
failure  of  real  protection  to 
consumer,  137,  140,  141; 
lunch  period,  126;  minimum 
wage  board  suggested,  222; 
overtime,  legal  and  illegal, 
128;  overtime,  violations  of 
the  law,  129—13 1,  134;  Paris, 
178;  possibilities  of  legisla- 
tive action,  221-224;  pro- 
hibition of  home  work  ad- 
vocated, 223;  rest  period  at 
night,  declared  unconstitu- 
tional, 123;  tenement-made 
articles,  list  of,  137;  viola- 
tions of  hours  of  labor,  129- 
134;  violations  of  laws  re- 
stricting employment  of 
women  and  children,  133 

Learners.  See  Apprentices  and 
Learners 

Leaves:  making,  16 

Leaving  of  Positions:  reasons, 
49 

Loss  of  Time.     See  Time 


Manufacturers:  association, 
198;  attitude  toward  learn- 
ers,  191,   197,   198;  attitude 


toward  trade  classes,  206; 
lists  to  be  furnished  to  de- 
partment of  labor,  91 ;  New 
York,  in  1840,  3;  number  of 
firms  investigated,  90;  Paris 
contractors,  153-160;  spe- 
cialization of  work  in  Paris, 
145,  146;  violations  of  laws 
restricting  employment  of 
women  and  children,  133 

Married  Women:  Parisian  home 
workers,  169,  170;  propor- 
tion in  the  shops,  74,  81; 
wives  as  wage-earners,  116, 
117.     See  also  Parents 

Men  in  the  Flower  Trade: 
number,  4-6;  tasks  more  re- 
munerative than  those  of 
women,  63;  wages,  61,  63 

Milhaud,  Caroline:  French  in- 
vestigator of  flower  trade, 
148 

Millinery  Trade:  conditions, 
9-1 1 ;  number  of  women  em- 
ployed, 10,  11,  by  ages,  25, 
26;  relation  to  the  flower 
trade,  8,  1 1,  43,  215 

Models  for  Flower  Making, 
17-19,  144,  154,  156 

Mothers.     See  Parents 


Nationality:  among  flower 
makers,  23,  28-35;  among 
all  women  wage-earners,  3 1 ; 
as  a  factor  in  variation  of 
wages,  67-69 

New  York:  location  of  shops,  8, 
91 ;  most  important  center  of 
flower  and  feather  trade,  6 


Occupations:  of  contributors  to 
the  family  income  other  than 
the  flower  workers,  75-78 

Overcrowding:  in  flower  mak- 
ers' homes,  83,  139 


257 


INDEX 


Overtime:  home  work  is  over- 
time, 134;  legal  and  illegal, 
128;  violations  of  the  law, 
129—13 1 

Paper  Box  Making:  number  of 
women  employed,  by  ages, 
25,  26 

Parents:  length  of  residence  in 
United  States  of  parents  of 
home  workers,  115;  nativity 
of  parents  of  shop  workers, 
29-31;  occupations  and 
wages  of  fathers  in  families 
doing  home  work,  112,  113; 
occupations  of,  of  shop  work- 
ers, 75-78;  wages  of,  of  shop 
workers,  75-78 

Paris  Flower  Trade:  appren- 
ticeship system,  147,  148, 
155,  183-190;  beginnings  of 
flower  trade,  150,  151;  center 
of  flower  industry,  149;  child 
labor,  absence  of,  169;  cost 
of  living,  164-167;  distinc- 
tive features  of  the  flower 
trade,  220;  dyeing  of  flowers, 
146,  156;  Employers'  Syndi- 
cate, 1 86;  flower  trade  among 
better  paid  occupations,  220; 
home-work  system,  158,  168- 
179;  homes,  attractiveness, 
168;  hours  of  labor,  177,  178; 
investigation  by  E.  S.  Ser- 
geant, 148;  irregularity  of 
employment,  161 ;  legal  regu- 
lation, 178;  married  women 
in  trade,  169,  170;  models 
for  flowers,  144,  154,  156; 
most  beautiful  roses  in  the 
world,  154;  number  in  the 
trade,  150;  processes,  152- 
158;  seasons,  161;  shop  con- 
ditions, 153-160;  specializa- 
tion of  work,  145,  146,  152; 
superiority  of  French  flow- 
ers, 23,  144-146;  trade  union- 
ism, 179-182;  wages,  162- 
164,     167,     17I-I77.     186; 


wages,  compared  with  Amer- 
ican, 145,  147 
Payment  for  Work.    See  Wages 
Persons  per  Room:  in  families 

of  home  workers,  139 
Philadelphia  :  numberof  women 
in  the  trade,  1905,  7 

Piece  Work:  wages,  59,  64,  170, 
171 

Positions:  length  of  time  em- 
ployed in  latest,  46;  reasons 
for  leaving,  49 

Preparing  Flowers,  15 
Processes.    See  Flower  Making 

Rent:  paid  by  families  of  flower 

makers,  84 
Romans:    makers    of    artificial 

flowers,  1 
Russians:  in  the  flower  trade, 

28,  29,  31,  32 

School  Attendance:  age  of 
women  at  time  of  leaving 
school,  203-205;  ages  and 
grades  of  children  attending 
school,  102,  103 

School  Classes:  in  flower  mak- 
ing, attitude  of  employers 
and  workers,  205-212;  opin- 
ion of  school  official,  221; 
Paris  schools,  184 

Seasons:  effect  of,  on  personnel 
of  workroom  force,  217; 
length  of,  as  affected  by 
fashion,  19,  20;  length  of 
busy  season,  41;  length  of 
slack  season,  42;  manufac- 
turers make  no  effort  to 
lengthen  seasons  of  employ- 
ment, 56;  months  of  begin- 
ning and  ending  of  busy 
seasons,  45;  Paris,  161 ;  rela- 
tion of  flower  and  feather 
seasons,  53-5 5;  short  seasons, 
reasons  for,  43;  variation  in 


258 


INDEX 


different    shops    and    from 
season  to  season,  47,  48 
Sergeant,    Elizabeth    S.:    in- 
vestigation of  Parisian  flower 
trade,  148 

Shell  Flowers,  2 

Shop  Workers  in  New  York: 
ages  of  women  employed,  25, 
26;  attitude  of  girls  of  differ- 
ent races  toward  the  trade, 
37~39»"  children,  25-27;  con- 
ditions of  trade  afford  no 
encouragement  to  crafts- 
manship, 39;  foreigners  in 
the  trade,  23,  28;  home  work 
at  night,  134-136;  Italians, 
predominance  of,  31-34; 
Jewish  girl,  34-37;  majority 
under  25  years  of  age,  24; 
nativity  of  parents,  28-31; 
trade  union,  attempt  to 
organize,  36;  young  girls, 
large  proportion,  23,  24,  27 

Shop  Workers  in  Paris,  152- 
160;  hours,  178;  number, 
150;  seasons,  161;  wages, 
162,  163 

Standards  of  Living:  lowered 
by  underbidding  of  Italian 
women,  67-69;  married 
women's  employment,  effect 
of,  117;  must  be  measured 
with  reference  to  trade  con- 
ditions and  family  require- 
ments, 72,  73 ;  overcrowding 
in  the  home,  83;  undermined 
by  low  wages  and  unem- 
ployment, 58 

Statistics  (Tables):  ages  and 
grades  attended  in  schools  of 
children  making  flowers,  102; 
ages  of  home  workers,  100, 
1 1 1 ;  ages  of  women  em- 
ployed in  New  York,  25,  26; 
daily  earnings  of  Parisian 
women,  173;  flower  and 
feather  trade,  1850,  1870, 
1880  to  1 9 10,  3-6;  hours  of 


Parisian  home  workers,  177; 
irregularity  of  employment, 
40;  leaving  positions,  rea- 
sons, 49;  length  of  residence 
in  United  States  of  foreign- 
born  parents  of  home  work- 
ers, 115;  length  of  seasons, 
41,  42;  manufacturers,  num- 
ber of,  in  New  York,  in  1840, 
3;  monthly  earnings  of  Pa- 
risian home  worker,  174, 
>7?,  177;  months  of  begin- 
ning and  ending  of  busy 
season,  45;  nativity  of  par- 
ents of  flower  makers,  29,  3 1 ; 
number  of  women  employed 
in  United  States,  1880-19 10, 
4-6,  by  ages,  in  New  York, 
25,  26;  occupations  of  fa- 
thers in  families  doing  home 
work,  113;  Paris,  number  in 
the  trade,  150;  rent  paid 
monthly  by  families,  84; 
time  for  which  women  were 
employed  in  latest  positions, 
46;  time  lost  in  year  preced- 
ing date  of  interview,  50,  51; 
wages  of  I  alian  women  and 
of  other  nationalities,  69; 
weekly  earnings  of  families 
from  home  work,  106;  week- 
ly maximum  wages,  59; 
weekly  wages,  by  process 
and  method  of  payment,  64; 
weekly  wages,  by  years  of 
employment,  65;  weekly 
wages  of  learners  in  New 
York,  199;  weekly  wages  of 
men  and  women,  61,  62; 
women  wage-earners  by  na- 
tivity of  parents  and  general 
occupations,  New  York, 
1900,  31;  yearly  earnings  of 
Parisian  home  workers,  172 
Summary  of  Conditions:  in  the 
flower  trade,  213-224 

Teaching  Girls  the  Trade. 
See  Apprentices  and  Learners; 
School  Classes 


259 


INDEX 


Tenement  Manufacture::  ad- 
dresses of  tenements  licensed 
for  home  work  published, 
9 1 ;  conditions  in  homes,  1 38, 
139;  failure  in  protection  to 
consumer,  137,  140,  141;  in- 
spection, 137-140;  list  of 
tenement-made  articles,  137; 
number  of  licensed  tene- 
ments, 141 

Time  :  length  of  time  employed  in 
latest  positions,  46;  loss  due 
to  part  time,  44;  lost  time  in 
year  preceding  date  of  inter- 
view, 50,  51;  part  time,  43; 
weekly  wages  by  years  of 
employment,  65 

Tools:  used  in  flower  making,  14, 
15 

Trade  Classes.  See  School 
Classes 

Trade  Unionism:  attempts  of 
Jewish  girls  to  organize  a 
union,  36;  Paris,  179-182; 
workers  have  never  suc- 
ceeded in  organizing  a  union, 
218 

Unemployment.  See  Irregular- 
ity of  Employment 


Violation  of  the  Law:  hours  of 
labor,  129-134;  restricting 
employment  of  women  and 
children,  133 


Wages  of  Home  Workers,  New 
York,  95-99,  104-108;  bar- 
gaining, effect  of,  in  ;  com- 
parison with  wages  of  shop 
workers,  107,  108;  home- 
work system  depresses  wage 
scale,  218,  219;  relation  of 
work  of  children  to  earning 
power  of  family,  107;  tend- 
ency is  downward,  expe- 
riences and  opinions  of  work- 


ers, 1 09— 111;  weekly  earn- 
ings of  families  by  number  in 
each  family,  106;  yearly  in- 
comes, 108,  109 

Wages  of  Home  Workers* 
Paris,  171-177;  monthly 
earnings,  174,  175,  177; 
yearly  earnings,  172 

Wages  of  Men:  in  flower  trade, 
61,63 

Wages  of  Parents,  75-78,  112, 
113 

Wages  of  Shop  Workers,  New 
York:  average  wage  of  all 
workers,  217;  comparative 
weekly  earnings  of  women 
and  men,  61,  63 ;  comparison 
with  wages  of  home  workers, 
107,  108;  factors  influencing 
wages,  88;  fixing  of  wage  a 
matter  of  chance,  67;  Italian 
women's  wages  compared 
with  wages  of  women  of 
other  nationalities,  68,  69; 
learners  in  New  York,  192, 
194,  196,  199;  maximum 
weekly  wages,  59;  nation- 
ality as  a  factor  in  wage 
variation,  67-69;  number  of 
women  employed  where 
maximum  weekly  wage  paid 
was  as  specified,  59;  pay- 
ment for  different  processes, 
64;  piece  work,  59,  64;  pro- 
portion of  women  in  flower 
wage  groups  compared  with 
proportion  of  women  in  wage 
groups  in  all  industries,  61; 
rate  determined  by  fore- 
woman's guess,  67;  reduc- 
tion in  dull  weeks,  44;  stand- 
ard wages  determine  stand- 
ard of  living,  73;  standards 
unrecognized,  218;  stories 
told  by  flower  makers,  80- 
82,  86;  time  work,  59,  64; 
underbidding  of  Italian 
women,  30;  weekly  earnings, 
61,  62;  weekly  wages  for  dif- 


260 


INDEX 


ferent  processes,  time  work 
and  piece  work,  64;  weekly 
wages  by  years  of  employ- 
ment, 65,  66;  yearly  income 
for  all  occupations,  70-72 

Wages  of  Shop  Workers,  Paris, 
162-164;  apprentices,  186; 
comparison  of  flower  trade 
with  other  trades,  167;  com- 
parison with  America,  145, 
147;  daily  earnings  of  home 
workers,  173;  piece  work, 
171 

Wenzel,  Joseph:  first  flower 
manufacturer  in  France,  1 50 


West  Hoboken,  New  Jersey: 
number  of  women  in  the 
trade,  1905,  7 

Willow  Plumes.  See  Feather 
Trade 

Workrooms:  conditions  in  New 
York,  119,  120,  131;  condi- 
tions in  Paris,  153-160;  dif- 
ferences in  organization,  20- 
22 


Young  Girls:  in  the  trade,  large 
proportion,  23-27 


261 


THE' 


SURVEY 

A  JOURNAL  OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  PHILANTHROPY 


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